NEW YORK — Twice major winner Victoria Azarenka downed Russian Elina Avanesyan 6-4 6-2 and former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu cruised past Swiss Jil Teichmann 6-2 6-4 in the first round as the Guadalajara Open main draw kicked off.
Six of the world’s top 10 are expected to play in the hard-court tournament, the final WTA 1000-level event this season before the WTA Finals, with Polish world number one and US Open winner Iga Swiatek absent after winning in San Diego.
Azarenka, who reached the last 16 in New York but lost in her Ostrava opener earlier this month, dropped only three first-serve points in the first set and broke in the seventh game.
The Belarussian’s serve deteriorated in a choppy second set but her 20-year-old opponent could not derail the experienced Azarenka who set up a second-round meeting with Spanish top seed Paula Badosa in a repeat of the Indian Wells final last year.
Canadian Andreescu had no problem overcoming Teichmann, winning the first three games of the first set and cruising through the second as the Swiss served three double faults.
Russian Liudmila Samsonova, who won in Cleveland and Tokyo this year but lost her first-round match in San Diego, beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-1 7-5 and China’s Zhu Lin defeated Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 3-6 6-3 6-4.
“I definitely like the atmosphere here. I think the altitude helps me in a way, especially when I’m hitting winners,” Andreescu said. “I feel like it just drags [the ball] around, which I actually like. I just wanted to come out, stay positive and give everything I have.
“I’m very happy with the consistency. Sometimes, I could’ve went for more, but I chose to be a little bit more safe. I didn’t want to go for too much, there’s a good balance. I think my serve went really well today, my return, and just fighting until the end, as well.”
Azarenka was expected to play against China’s Zhang Shuai, but Zhang withdrew prior to the match due to illness. Avanesyan lost to Linda Fruhvirtova in the final round of qualifying, but the 20-year-old got a second chance to play in her first WTA 1000 event on hard courts.
With the win, Azarenka moves through to an intriguing Round 2 clash with No.1 seed Paula Badosa. They’ve split two prior meetings; last autumn, Badosa won a classic in a marathon final at the BNP Paribas Open, but Azarenka was a straight-sets winner in January in Adelaide.
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