It was a battle between the top two seeds but Tsunoda ensured it was not a close contest, beating Boukli with an ippon at the Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena in Qatari capital Doha.

Boukli was the first seed and world number one in the category but was blown away by Tsunoda.

The Japanese star looked to exploit an early mistake from Boukli who fell into a hold and faced a battle to be released.

Boukli did brilliantly to wriggle out of it but came under pressure again and soon fell to defeat to the impressive Tsunoda.

After getting under Boukli, Tsunoda managed to flip her opponent onto her back for an ippon, securing her third successive title after victories in 2021 and 202.

Tsunoda was joined on the podium by fellow countrywoman Wakana Koga who produced a superb performance to defeat France’s Blandine Pont for bronze.

An early waza-ari sent Koga on her way before sealing victory with an ippon in the final minute.

The other bronze-medal contest was won by Italy’s Assunta Scutto whose waza-ari inside the opening 10 seconds was enough to beat Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova.

Many were expecting a double victory for Japan on the opening day, with reigning Olympic and world champion Naohisa Takato looking to match Tsunoda’s gold-medal success.

But Takato, a four-time winner of the men’s under-60kg title, suffered a surprise semi-final defeat at the hands of Spain’s Francisco Garrigos.

The Spaniard then backed that victory up by defeating Uzbekistan's Dilshodbek Baratov in the final.

Baratov was 16 places lower in the world rankings to Garrigos but pushed the two-time European champion all the way.

His hopes of gold were dashed 41 seconds into the golden-score period when he was rolled over by Garrigos for a match-winning waza-ari.

South Korea’s Lee Ha-rim compounded Takato’s misery by beating him in the bronze-medal bout, leaving the Japanese star empty handed.

The other battle for bronze also went to overtime with 19-year-old Georgian Giorgi Sardalashvili overcoming Belgium's Jorre Verstraeten in a marathon encounter that lasted more than nine minutes.

The opening day also saw Sabina Giliazova become the first Russian judoka to compete under the individual neutral athlete banner but went out in the women's under-48kg first round, losing to Pont,

Russian and Belarusian athletes are being allowed to compete as neutrals at the event after the International Judo Federation agreed to their return.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with the men’s under-66kg and women’s under-52kg categories set to be contested.