Ana Ivanovic from Serbia and Montenegro and Li Na of China both enjoyed comfortable first-round wins at the Gold Coast WTA Open on Monday as they defeated qualifier Roberta Vinci of Italy and Czech Sandra Zahlavova on the new year's day.

 

Third-seeded Ivanovic struggled to overcome the Italian in the first set wrapping up the tiebreak 7-5 before racing through the second set 6-1 to book a second-round berth against Venezuela's Milagros Sequera.

 

China's Li Na, the sixth seed, lost just four games as she swept past Czech Sandra Zahlavova 6-0, 6-4 while seventh seed Katarina Srebotnik beat American Vania King 6-4, 6-3.

 

One seed that was scattered, however, was Germany's number fourAnna-Lena Groenefeld who lost tussle with Italy's Tathiana Garbin 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)