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Victoria Azarenka through

Victoria Azarenka made a winning start in the Wuhan Open Lauren Davis
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Victoria Azarenka's aim to be back at the top continues with a straight-sets win over Lauren Davis in the Wuhan Open.

Azarenka cruised into the second round with a 6-2 7-6 (7-4) win.

After dominating the opening set, Azarenka was made to battle for the second by her American opponent, but showed her quality in the tie-break to progress.

She will meet Johanna Konta in round two after the Briton sent 13th seed Andrea Petkovic crashing out, Konta winning 6-4 7-5 in just under two hours.

Petkovic was not the only big name to fall on the opening day of competition as Sam Stosur was beaten 6-2 6-1 by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

There were no such problems for 12th seed Elina Svitolina as she sailed past Daniela Hantuchova 6-4 6-4, the 2014 semi-finalist off to an impressive start.

Svitolina will meet Varvara Lepchenko following her 6-4 6-0 triumph over Zheng Saisai, while Daria Gavrilova has the daunting task of facing defending champion Petra Kvitova after beating Teliana Pereira 6-2 7-6 (9-7).

Sunday also saw straight-set wins for Barbora Strycova, Julia Goerges, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Monica Niculescu, while Coco Vandeweghe needed three sets to knock Lesia Tsurenko out 6-2 2-6 6-3.

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