Li Na, Chinese women's tennis number one, ousted last year's
runner-up Francesca Schiavone of Italy in straight sets in the
opening round of the Sydney international tennis tournament on
Sunday.
The world No. 21 registered 75 percent 'first serves' to beat
Schiavone 6-4, 7-5 in 94 minutes. Li? now faces the winner of
sixth Russian seed Elena Dementieva or Japan's Ai Sugiyama in the
second round.
Highly-rated Serb Ana Ivanovic cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win over
Australian Casey Dellacqua.
In other matches, Israel's Shahar Peer beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld
of Germany 6-4, 6-2 and eighth-seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech
Republic defeated Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-4.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)