Beijing, China (Sports Network) - Petra Kvitova was an easy first-round winner
Saturday at the $4.83 million China Open.
The fourth-seeded Czech routed Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-3 on the
hardcourts at China's National Tennis Centre.
One other seeded player joined Kvitova in the second round, as No. 11 Serbian
Ana Ivanovic handled American Christina McHale 6-3, 6-2.
Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova moved on after 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova
retired in the second set. The Slovakian was trailing 6-4, 4-1 when she called
it quits.
Additional wins came for Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, Swiss Romina Oprandi,
American Varvara Lepchenko, Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh, China's Shuai Zhang
and Austria's Tamira Paszek.
The top seeds here are Australian Open champion and U.S. Open runner-up
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, French Open titlist and Aussie Open and Olympic
runner-up Maria Sharapova of Russia and Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka
Radwanska.
The Polish star Radwanska, a runner-up in Tokyo this weekend, defeated German
Andrea Petkovic in last year's Beijing finale and was a finalist here in
2009.
All of the world's top-10 players are on hand in Beijing, with the exception
of 2004 champ Serena Williams, who pulled out on Friday due to an illness.
The 2012 China Open champion will enjoy a windfall of $848,000.
The Sports Network