Top-seeded Venus Williams cruised into the second round of the Korea Open yesterday, defeating American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-3.
Despite warm conditions at Seoul's Olympic Park tennis arena, the Wimbledon champion barely broke a sweat as she used her powerful serve to dominate the match. Spears, whose right arm was heavily strapped, failed to win a single point from Williams's first serve in the opening set.
In the second set, Williams broke again in the opening game and held off a late rally from Spears to complete a comfortable win.
In other first-round matches, defending champion No. 5 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece won a hard-fought match against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-4; Martina Muller of Germany beat local hope Han Sung-hee 6-1, 6-0; Ahsha Rolle of the US made short work of Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-1, 6-1 and Mathilde Johansson of France defeated Junri Namigata of Japan 7-5, 6-2.
Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn rallied from a set down to eliminate Australia's Casey Dellacqua 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, China's Yuan Meng defeated New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4 and Colombian Catalina Castano beat Hseih Su-wei of Taiwan, 6-3, 6-2. Another local favorite was eliminated as Agnes Szavay of Hungary defeated South Korea's Lee Ye-ra 6-2, 6-3.
Williams, who won her sixth Grand Slam at Wimbledon this year, returned to the top 10 in the WTA world rankings the first time since April last year after reaching the US Open semi-finals.
Seventh-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel beat Czech Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-3 on Monday, the opening day of the Fortis Championships.
In the other two matches, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, and Anne Kremer of Luxembourg downed Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6 (3).
The 18-year-old Azarenka next will face third-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia, who received a bye to the second round while Kremer will face second-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
Defending champion Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine was to play her first match yesterday, as was top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia.
German wild-card Nicolas Kiefer saw off third-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-3 in the first round of the Mumbai Open yesterday.
Up a break at 4-3 on Monday, before rain forced a premature end to play for the day on the outdoor hardcourts, the former world No. 4 wrapped up the match in another 48 minutes.
"It was not easy, started yesterday, rained, and continued today," Kiefer told a news conference. "He is a tough opponent.
"It's very humid here and takes time for one to adjust."
Ranked 130, Kiefer, who missed the second half of last season due to two wrist operations, broke the 24th-ranked Frenchman in the seventh and ninth games of the second set.
Fifth seed Fabrice Santoro beat fellow Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-1 6-2 in another first round match that was interrupted by rain.
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