Fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber advances at Sydney International

Angelique Kerber of Germany reacts after winning a point against Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia during their women's singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Daniel Munoz) (The Associated Press)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the U.S. acknowledges the crowd after defeating Eugenie Bouchard of Canada during their women's singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Daniel Munoz) (The Associated Press)

Fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-6 (5), 7-5 on Monday to move into the second round of the Sydney International, one of the last warm-up tournaments for the Australian Open starting next week.

Kerber will next play Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, who beat American qualifier Victoria Duval 6-1, 6-3.

In other first-round matches, Lucie Safarova beat 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-4 and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands had a 6-4, 6-3 win over Canada's Eugenie Bouchard.

Two other U.S. players advanced, with Lauren Davis beating Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova 6-4, 7-6 (8) and Varvara Lepchenko scoring a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-4, 6-1.