• Madrid Open

Wozniacki through as reigning champion crashes out

Caroline Wozniacki breezed past Ayumi Morita © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Sharapova marches on in Madrid
  
• Profile: Maria Sharapova | Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki made a comfortable start to the Madrid Open on Sunday, dropping just five games in her first round encounter with Ayumi Morita.

The outdoor clay surface is by no means Wozniacki's strongest platform, but the world No. 1 served excellently and looked extremely solid for a 6-2 6-3 victory. The Dane wrapped up the match inside 70 minutes, and she did not concede a single break point throughout the contest.

Wozniacki maintained an 80 per cent first-serve success rate against her Japanese opponent, dropping only two points on second serve. Two breaks in the first set were followed by another in the second, handing her an easy first step towards the title that was owned by Aravane Rezai.

However, defending champion Rezai is out, beaten in three sets by Swedish qualifier Sofia Arvidsson. Rezai was always second-best to her rival, struggling to hold serve as she crashed out in just under two hours.

Wozniacki's opponent in the second round will be Bojana Jovanovski, who needed three sets to see off Greta Arn 6-4 2-6 6-3.

Maria Sharapova is through to the second round, but she looked far from comfortable on the red dirt against Aranxta Rus. Sharapova was broken on five occasions, but her plight was helped by seven double-faults from Rus in a 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory for the Russian.

Reigning French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was given a stern test by Shuai Peng, eventually progressing 7-5 7-6(2) in two hours on court. The graceful Schiavone often troubled her opponent when returning, whilst staying error-free behind her own serve, and she dominated the second-set tiebreaker to advance.

Elsewhere, 14th seed Kaia Kanepi was beaten by recent Porsche Tennis Grand Priz champion Julia Goerges, 11th seed Marion Bartoli safely negotiated her way past Simona Halep, Daniela Hantuchova beat Kimiko Date-Krumm, and No. 15 seed Ana Ivanovic was dumped out 0-6 6-4 6-4 by Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.