Shenzhen, China (Sports Network) - Chinese tennis hero Li Na was an easy
first-round winner Tuesday at the inaugural $500,000 season-opening Shenzhen
Open.
The top-seeded former French Open champion Li blew past Luxembourg's Mandy
Minella 6-4, 6-0 on the hardcourts at Shenzhen Longgang Tennis Center.
Li's second-round opponent on Wednesday will be American Julie Cohen.
Also on Wednesday, second seed Marion Bartoli will play her second-rounder
against Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele.
Another popular Tuesday win came when sixth-seeded Chinese Peng Shuai pasted
Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-1.
Meanwhile, German Annika Beck upset fourth-seeded Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh 6-3,
6-0; fifth-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina
6-4, 6-3; Romanian Monica Niculescu upended seventh-seeded British left-hander
Laura Robson 6-2, 6-3; and eighth-seeded Serb Bojana Jovanovski blitzed
Chinese wild card Duan Ying-Ying 6-3, 6-1 in round one.
One other second-round match on Tuesday saw Chinese lucky-loser Yi-Miao Zhou
erased American qualifier Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-2. Zhou replaced former world
No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the draw.
This event serves as a tune-up for the Australian Open, which starts January
14.
The Sports Network