Previous winners Conchita Martinez of Spain and Mary Pierce of France led the way Monday in the first round of the Bausch & Lomb Championships, the WTA Tour's first outdoor green clay-court tournament of the year.
Martinez, the 1995 winner, and Pierce, who beat Martinez for the 1998 title, both advanced with straight set wins. Martinez beat American Marissa Irvin, 7-6 (4), 6-4, while the 14th-seeded Pierce needed just 46 minutes to win 6-3, 6-0 over Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic.
The top players will take the court during the next two days with top-ranked Lindsay Davenport opening defense of her 2004 Bausch & Lomb title with a match against Kristina Brandi on Tuesday.
Davenport is a two-time champion, winning in 1997 as well as last year's finals victory over Amelie Mauresmo.
Second-seeded Serena Williams begins play on Wednesday, while sister Venus -- the No. 5 seed despite having beaten Serena last week in Key Biscayne -- meets Martina Sucha on Tuesday.
The two Williams sisters are in opposite ends of the bracket meaning they could only meet in Sunday's final. Venus won the tournament in 2002 while Serena's best effort was last year when she advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Nadia Petrova.
In other matches with seeded players, No. 11 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro beat Russian Vera Douchevina, 6-2, 6-2; No. 13 Ai Sugiyama of Japan beat Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo, 6-1, 7-6 (8); and No. 15 Shinobu Asagoe of Japan got past American Mashona Washington, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4; and No. 16 Amy Frazier defeated Alina Jidkova of Russia, 6-4, 6-2.
Gustavo Kuerten advanced to the second round of the Open Comunidad Valenciana in straight sets Monday, making a successful return to the ATP tour following a hip operation.
The Brazilian needed only an hour and five minutes to beat fourth-seeded Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 in the first round of the 340,250 euros (US$436,500) clay court tournament.
Kuerten had been idled since having surgery in September.
"I felt very good -- the shots came naturally, as if I had already played several matches," Spanish news agency Efe quoted Kuerten as saying. "It was a very important match for me."
In other first-round matches, second-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile defeated Germany's Bjorn Phau 6-3, 7-6 (3). Igor Andreev of Russia, seeded seventh, defeated Spain's Fernando Vicente 6-4, 7-5. Austria's Stefan Koubek downed Israel Matos Gil of Spain 6-1, 6-3.
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