Li Na, Chinese women's tennis number one, ousted last year's runner-up Francesca Schiavone of Italy in straight sets in the opening round of the Sydney international tennis tournament on Sunday.

The world No. 21 registered 75 percent 'first serves' to beat Schiavone 6-4, 7-5 in 94 minutes. Li? now faces the winner of sixth Russian seed Elena Dementieva or Japan's Ai Sugiyama in the second round.

Highly-rated Serb Ana Ivanovic cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Australian Casey Dellacqua.

In other matches, Israel's Shahar Peer beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-4, 6-2 and eighth-seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic defeated Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-4.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)