First-round action started on Monday at the Guangzhou Open and both seeded players that took the courts won their matches. Seed No.6 Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei, ranked 42nd, made a quick start by eliminating 66th-ranked Paula Ormaechea of Argentina 6-1 6-2 in just 56 minutes. Hsieh has two titles so far and one of them is from the 2012 Guangzhou Open. Eight-seeded Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, ranked 48th, defeated qualifier Nadiya Kichenok of Ukraine, ranked 109th, 7-5 7-6(4).
Other winners in the opening round were qualifier Vania King of the United States, ranked 124th, Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan, ranked 81st, British qualifier Johanna Konta, Czech Karolina Pliskova and Chinese wildcard Shuai Zhang.
On Tuesday we will see the rest of the first-round matches where seed No.1 Sorana Cirstea of Romania faces Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, last weekend’s Tashkent Open champion, and seed No.2 Alize Cornet of France plays Belarusian Olga Govortsova, the runner-up in Tashkent over the weekend. Also, third seed and last year’s finalist Laura Robson will battle against Jovana Jaksic of Serbia. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
