No.7 seed Madison Keys of the United States notched a win at the Mubadala Citi DC Open for the first time in a decade on Tuesday night, easing past Zheng Qinwen of China 7-5, 6-1 in a clash between Top 25 players.

In 2013, an 18-year-old Keys won her opening match in her tournament debut, but she lost her next three matches in Washington. However, Keys rediscovered her winning ways in D.C. against 24th-ranked Zheng, prevailing in 1 hour and 28 minutes.

World No.16 Keys ended the five-match winning streak of 20-year-old Zheng, who won her first career WTA singles title on the clay courts of Palermo two weeks ago.

Keys saved three break points at 4-4 in the first set to stay in front of Zheng, and the American eventually converted her first set point at 6-5 by forcing an error with a penetrating backhand.

Two of Zheng's 10 double faults ceded a 2-0 lead to Keys in the second set, and the seventh seed rolled to victory from there. The players each had 10 winners in the match, but Zheng fired 17 more unforced errors than Keys.

Keys will come back on Wednesday night for an all-American second-round tussle with Jennifer Brady, who picked up her first tour-level win in nearly two years on Tuesday. Brady won their only previous meeting, at Beijing in 2019.

Two qualifiers, Hailey Baptiste and Leylah Fernandez, also picked up first-round victories on Tuesday evening. 

Washington D.C. native Baptiste, ranked World No.204, ousted former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 in 1 hour and 25 minutes of play on Stadium Court.

Highlights: Baptiste def. Pliskova

"I think that the variety that I used really made a difference today," Baptiste said afterward. "In the third set, I was being a little bit more aggressive, and I think that in the end, when I was more aggressive and mixing it up, it was a bit more of a struggle for her, and that really helped me out."

The 21-year-old Baptiste collected the second Top 50 win of her career over Pliskova. Baptiste's only other Top 50 win also came in Washington, when she upset Madison Keys in 2019 as a 17-year-old.

Baptiste will now play fellow American and No.3 seed Coco Gauff in the second round on Wednesday night. Baptiste is 0-2 in her two previous matches against Top 10 players.

"I’ve grown up with [Gauff], we played doubles once in juniors but never played against each other," Baptiste said. "I’m really excited to play and see how that turns out."

Later on Tuesday, 2021 US Open runner-up Fernandez defeated American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-5. Canada's Fernandez converted seven of nine break points on the way to a 1-hour and 35-minute victory in the pair's first meeting.

Fernandez set up a second-round match against No.4 seed Maria Sakkari, where Fernandez will seek her first Top 10 win since she beat three Top 5 players at the 2021 US Open. Sakkari won their only previous match 6-2, 6-2 at the 2021 Grampians Trophy in Melbourne.