HONG KONG — Top seed Angelique Kerber Tuesday sailed through the first round of the Hong Kong Open with a straight sets 6-4, 6-4 victory over Maria Sakkari.
The reigning Australian and US Open champion beat the Greek player, ranked 97th in the world, in an hour 21 minutes.
"I had never played my opponent and that makes it tough," Kerber told reporters. "It will be the same in my next match. But in the end I have to focus on my game."
The 28-year-old German, who is currently in the top spot in the Road to Singapore rankings, will face American Louisa Chirico in the second round.
In other first round matches, defending champion Jelena Jankovic, who beat Kerber in last year's Hong Kong final, eased through American Samantha Crawford 6-3, 6-1 in slightly more than an hour.
Danish Caroline Wozniacki, former world No. 1 and now fifth seed, beat China's Zheng Saisai 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the second round.
But former US Open champion, Australia's Samantha Stosur, crashed out in the first round in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Nao Hibino of Japan.
Suarez Navarro advance
In Linz, fourth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro kept her hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals alive with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Mona Barthel of Germany in the first round of the Generali Ladies Tuesday.
The 12th-ranked Spaniard, who is 10th in the race for the eight-player season-ending event, dropped her opening service game on the only break point she faced in the match. She closed out the win by taking the last five games in a row.
Suarez Navarro next plays fellow Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who beat Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Also, Germany's Julia Goerges, who reached the final here in 2012, defeated Austrian wild-card entry Barbara Haas 6-4, 6-4 to set up a match against Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
Monica Niculescu of Romania came from behind to clinch a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Madison Brengle of the United States, who failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the final set. The 50th-ranked Niculescu will face either the top-seeded French Open champion Garbine Muguruza or Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey in the next round.
In other first-round play, Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic defeated the seventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-2, 6-3, and Oceane Dodin of France rallied to beat Czech qualifier Kristyna Pliskova 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3 after coming back from 4-1 down in the second set.
