Li posts win on home soil

Shenzhen, China – Chinese tennis hero Li Na was an easy first-round winner Tuesday at the inaugural $500,000 season-opening Shenzhen Open.

The top-seeded former French Open champion Li blew past Luxembourg's Mandy Minella 6-4, 6-0 on the hardcourts at Shenzhen Longgang Tennis Center.

Li's second-round opponent on Wednesday will be American Julie Cohen.

Also on Wednesday, second seed Marion Bartoli will play her second-rounder against Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele.

Another popular Tuesday win came when sixth-seeded Chinese Peng Shuai pasted Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-1.

Meanwhile, German Annika Beck upset fourth-seeded Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh 6-3, 6-0; fifth-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3; Romanian Monica Niculescu upended seventh-seeded British left-hander Laura Robson 6-2, 6-3; and eighth-seeded Serb Bojana Jovanovski blitzed Chinese wild card Duan Ying-Ying 6-3, 6-1 in round one.

One other second-round match on Tuesday saw Chinese lucky-loser Yi-Miao Zhou erase American qualifier Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-2. Zhou replaced former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the draw.

This event serves as a tune-up for the Australian Open, which starts January 14.