Ana Ivanovic from Serbia and Montenegro and Li Na of China both
enjoyed comfortable first-round wins at the Gold Coast WTA Open on
Monday as they defeated qualifier Roberta Vinci of Italy and Czech
Sandra Zahlavova on the new year's day.
Third-seeded Ivanovic struggled to overcome the Italian in the
first set wrapping up the tiebreak 7-5 before racing through the
second set 6-1 to book a second-round berth against Venezuela's
Milagros Sequera.
China's Li Na, the sixth seed, lost just four games as she swept
past Czech Sandra Zahlavova 6-0, 6-4 while seventh seed Katarina
Srebotnik beat American Vania King 6-4, 6-3.
One seed that was scattered, however, was Germany's number
fourAnna-Lena Groenefeld who lost tussle with Italy's Tathiana
Garbin 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)