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World No. 5 Stosur makes winning start in Stuttgart

Sam Stosur © Getty Images

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Sam Stosur experienced few problems as she breezed into the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Tuesday.

The world No. 5 was matched with Shuai Peng of China in the first round of the Stuttgart event. And she needed just 59 minutes to complete victory, winning 6-2 6-2.

Serving beautifully Stosur needed only to save one break point in the opening set. That gave her the platform to penetrate the Peng delivery on two occasions, quickly asserting her authority in the match.

Peng did find a break in the second but she lacked the fluid footwork of Stosur on the clay surface. The Australian, a former French Open finalist, broke three more times for a comfortable win as she looks for a fourth WTA title.

Stosur will now face defending champion Julia Goerges in the second round after the German came from a set down to beat Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

In a rematch of last year's semi-final, when Goerges upset Stosur en route to her first Premier-level tournament win, the pair will meet in the second round after the world No. 21 claimed a 5-7 6-3 6-4 victory.

Home favourite Angelique Kerber fended off clay-court specialist Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-3. Kerber will face a former world No. 1 in the second round, with the German drawn to face the winner of the opening-round clash between Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic.

Andrea Petkovic won an all-German battle against Kristina Barrois 6-1 6-4 to set up a second-round clash with world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.

Former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone got the better of Monica Niculescu 6-3 7-5, while seventh seed Marion Bartoli progressed with a 6-3 6-2 win over Iveta Benesova. Elsewhere there were also first-round wins for qualifiers Greta Arn and Alize Cornet.

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