British ace Lily Miyazaki reaches the second round of the US Open by beating Russia’s Margarita Betova as the 27-year-old finally wins her first main draw match in a Grand Slam

Britain’s Lily Miyazaki reached the second round of the US Open on Monday night and wouldn’t need her maths degree to calculate that she’s more than doubled her prize money for the entire season so far.

The Great Britain number seven, who has played three qualifying matches, has guaranteed herself more than £98,000 by winning her first main draw match in a Grand Slam aged 27.

She defeated Russia’s Margarita Betova 6-3 6-3 and will now face reigning Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, leading the way for the six British singles players who will play on day two.

The graduate of the University of Oaklahoma, who also has a Masters in Information Technology, has so far followed the path laid out two years ago by Emma Raducanu, who defeated Bencic en route to the title.

“When I came in here, I didn’t expect to be at this stage,” Miyazaki admitted. “Playing qualifying definitely helped me because I was very confident in the conditions. I was nervous today and didn’t play great, I’m a bit lost.’

Miyazaki earned one of the nicest draws out there, as she took on an opponent who was coming back from a career hiatus after giving birth.

Under her maiden name Gasparayan, Betova once climbed to number 41, but because she only played at Wimbledon this year, she languishes below 1000 in the rankings, and it showed.

Nevertheless, world No. 199 Miyazaki put her compact, trailblazing game to good use at distance outside Court Eight, and had earned her own good fortune by successfully completing last week’s preliminaries.

The number four in the world, Holger Rune, was the biggest casualty early on the first day. Disgruntled at being placed on the humble Court Five, his poor post-Wimbledon form continued as he went down 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2 to Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena.