Top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva breezed through their opening matches at the WTA Championships in Doha against below-par opponents.Second seed Zvonareva cruised past Jelena Jankovic 6-3 6-0 in the opening round-robin match in the White Group.World number one Wozniacki of Denmark then thrashed Russia’s Elena Dementieva 6-1 6-1 in the Maroon Group.Sam Stosur rounded off Tuesday’s play with a 6-4 6-4 win over French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.The world’s top eight players have been divided into two groups for this tournament, with the top two from each progressing to the semi-finals, although world number three Serena Williams and number five Venus Williams are absent this year through injury.Russian Zvonareva made a solid start as she embarks on a week that could see her crowned world number one, although she would need to reach the final unbeaten and hope that Wozniacki wins no more than one match.Jankovic has been in poor form in the second half of the year and arrived in Doha struggling with sinus problems, saying before she walked on to court, “I’m still not 100% but I’ll try my best.”Zvonareva took full advantage as the Serb repeatedly double-faulted, and after hanging on to her serve to trail 4-3, Jankovic failed to win another game.Jankovic later required an intravenous drip to take on fluids as she continued to feel the effects of her illness.”I had difficulty breathing during the match, felt dizzy and tingling and didn’t have any power,” she said. “I finished the match but had a really hard time. There were moments when I felt I was going to give up.”Zvonareva said: “I managed to go for my shots from the start but I made more of them in the second set. But I still have to improve my consistency, a little bit on my serve and also with my returns. That is the most important thing.”Wozniacki had an even more straightforward time against Dementieva, who appeared to be hampered by an ankle injury that has been affecting her recently.
“I think the fact that I was not able to practice for a couple of days because I really needed to rest it, really affected the way I was moving today,” said Dementieva.”Today was a bad experience. I’m going to learn from that and play a better match next round.”Wozniacki broke serve immediately and the 20-year-old Dane was never remotely troubled as she swept to her 31st win in her last 33 matches after little more than 50 minutes.”Of course, now I’m the player to beat,” said the world number one. “You know, it’s just a nice feeling. It’s nice to know that I’ve done such good results that I’m the number one player in the world. That is a fantastic feeling.”Another one-sided match appeared on the cards when Schiavone raced 4-0 clear of Stosur in their Maroon Group tie, but the Australian turned the match completely on its head with six straight games to edge the first set.And Stosur gained some measure of revenge for her defeat by the Italian in the Roland Garros final when she broke to lead 5-4 in the second and served out the match -= Bbc
