Top seed Sorana Cirstea crashed out of the Guangzhou Open in the first round on Tuesday, but British no. 1 Laura Robson powered through as she looks to repeat last year’s final appearance.
Robson defeated Cirstea in the semi-finals 12 months ago, but the Romanian failed to overcome her first hurdle this year when she was well beaten by Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 6-1.
Robson, seeded third this time, eased through to the second round with victory over Serbian Jovana Jaksic 6-2, 6-4 in her opening game.
Robson will next play home hope Zheng Saisai, who won a gruelling 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 7-5 tie against Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum which lasted two hours 50 minutes.
Also through to the next round were the second seed Alize Cornet of France, who outclassed Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-1, and the Chinese pair of Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai.
In Tuesday’s other first-round matches, Austrian Yvonne Meusburger beat Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 6-4, and Serbian Vesna Dolonc overcame Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 6-2.
Meanwhile, at the Korea open in Seoul, South Korea, top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland advanced to the second round by beating Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-4, 6-0.
Fourth-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic lost to 18-year-old wild-card Su Jeong Jang 6-3, 6-1. Francesca Schiavone defeated Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.