HONG KONG, Oct. 9(Xinhua) -- Two Chinese players Zhang Shuai and Wang Qiang cruised into the second round of the 2017 Hong Kong Tennis Open here on Monday.
Eighth seed Zhang soared into the second round with ruthless efficiency, as she disposed of Japanese qualifier Kurumi Nara 6-0, 6-0 in less than an hour.
"I did really well today. Before coming in Hong Kong, I did not set any goals. Now winning the first round gave me more confidence to do better. I'm very happy to have won today and I look forward to the next match." said Zhang, who just claimed the WTA Guangzhou Open title two weeks ago.
World No. 48 Wang took only 53 minutes to defeat Chang Kai-Chen of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 6-0.
Early, Samantha Stosur of Australia needed 1 hour 57 minutes to defeat the world No. 303 Lee Lee Ya-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the opening match of the tournament.
"The second set was kind of dodgy, but the way I came out in the third is how I want to play. I tried to be aggressive and managed to come up with some good forehands. I really enjoy my time here in Hong Kong and this is a really great crowd. Thank you all for coming out today!" said Stosur.
Former NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs of the United States, world-ranked 113rd, came from a set down to beat qualifier Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to move on to round two.
Australian Lizette Cabrera, world No. 146, saw off qualifier Shuko Aoyama of Japan 7-5, 6-3 to set up a clash with either defending champ Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in round two.
World No. 3 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine leads the field as the top seed at the 500,000 U.S. dollars WTA International Series event, which takes place from October 7 to 15 at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
