The top four seeds all cruised to round one victory in the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on Tuesday.
First seed Elina Svitolina defeated Zarina Diyas 6-4 7-6(2), third seed Caroline Wozniacki annihilated out-of-form Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-1 6-1 and fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska made short work of Ling Zhang 6-1 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with former world No.1 Samantha Stosur.
Second seed Venus Williams, playing in her first match since her semifinal at the US Open, won handily against Japan’s Risa Ozaki 6-2 6-2, while Daria Gavrilova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenko were also notable winners.
World No. 19 Elena Vesnina was the only surprise loss falling in straight sets to world No.130 Luksika Kumkhum.
The Wozniacki-Bouchard clash was barely that, with the Dane needing just 55 minutes to beat the former world No.5. Bouchard is now 3-10 since Roland Garros with seven first-round losses and is in danger of falling out of the top 100.
As for the uber consistent Wozniacki, it makes her 56th win of the year with only 20 losses and sets up a second round match against 19-year-old Aussie Lizette Cabrera.
In action today in Hong Kong ???? pic.twitter.com/MaBJlRmYTH
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) October 10, 2017
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