Wozniacki maintains win streak in Wuhan

Australia’s Samantha Stosur has fallen victim to Tokyo champion Caroline Wozniacki at the Wuhan Open, suffering a straight-sets first-round defeat.

Wozniacki made a quick turnaround, having won in Tokyo on the weekend, to defeat Stosur 6-3 6-2 in steamy Chinese conditions.

On a bad day for Australians, Daria Gavrilova was also handed a first-round defeat as she went down 6-2 6-2 to former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic.

Wozniacki, who missed several months of play due to a serious ankle injury and wrist problems, has been putting on a set of solid performances in the second half of the WTA campaign, reaching a US Open semi-final before her Tokyo trophy success.

“I’m enjoying it at the moment,” the Dane said. “Injuries happen, and you never know when you can be taken out of the game.”

2014 Wuhan champion Petra Kvitova was untroubled as she advanced over Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-1 6-3, twice losing breaks in the opening set but steadying for the win.

Kvitova now plays Elina Svitolina, who completed a fightback over Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 4-6 6-3 6-4.

Spanish seventh seed Carla Suarez Navarro earned an opening victory against Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-4 6-3 while British 11th seed Johanna Konta, a 2015 quarter-finalist who started in qualifying a year ago, put out Annika Beck 6-1 6-2.

Tenth seed Dominika Cibulkova beat Alize Cornet 6-2 2-6 6-3.

Caroline Garcia earned a French win, 6-2 6-4 over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia; Russia Darya Kasatkina eliminated German Julia Goerges with the loss of four games; and American Madison Brengle stopped Heather Watson 6-3 2-1 as the Briton retired.