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Baltacha opens 2011 with victory in Hobart

Dinara Safina lost 16 of her 29 matches last season © Getty Images

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Elena Baltacha kicked off the new season with a victory over Tamarine Tansugarn at the Hobart International in Tasmania.

The British No. 1 hit four aces as she sealed a 6-3 6-3 victory after an hour and 25 minutes on court to set up a second-round clash against fourth seed Roberta Vinci.

"Very happy with the win today! I played a good solid match! A tough 3 and 3! Tami worked me hard!... Great start to 2011," Baltacha posted on her Twitter feed after the match.

Former world No. 1 Dinara Safina's miserable run of form continued with a resounding defeat to top seed Marion Bartoli. Safina failed to win a single service game as she crashed to a 6-0 6-1 reverse.

Second seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's Australian Open hopes hit a setback when she was forced to retire from her match against the in-form Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The world's highest ranked teenager had lost the opening set 6-2 when she called it a day.

World No. 72 Shuai Peng battled back from a set down to stun third seed Tsvetana Pironkova 2-6 6-3 6-2, but Klara Zakopalova and Jarmila Groth both progressed unscathed.

Jelena Jankovic's season started with defeat at the hands of Aravane Rezai at the Sydney International. The former world No. 1 was sent crashing out of the draw, falling 7-5 2-6 6-3 to Rezai, who recorded her fourth straight victory against a top-ten player. Fifth seed Francesca Schiavone was also ousted by Russia's Alisa Kleybanova 7-5 6-4.

Fourth seed Sam Stosur breezed through her opening match against Yanina Wickmayer 7-5 6-4. A single break of serve in each set was enough for the Australian No. 1, who never faced a break point in the match.

Victoria Azarenka and Li Na , seeded No. 7 and No. 8 respectively, progressed to the second round unscathed. Azarenka battled back from a set down to beat Ekaterina Makarova 2-6 6-2 6-4, while Li needed just 55 minutes to beat Australian wildcard Anastasia Rodionova 6-1 6-2.

Flavia Pennetta, Shahar Peer and Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski also claimed victories.

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