Key Biscayne, FL – Onetime world No. 10 Andrea Petkovic was an easy straight-set victor as play commenced at the $4.196 million Sony Open on Tuesday.
The oft-injured German had little trouble in her opening-round bout with Bojana Jovanovski, besting her Serbian opponent by a 6-3, 6-1 score in just 58 minutes on the hardcourts at Crandon Park.
Former top-20 star Flavia Pennetta also rolled into the second round, with the Italian leveling Swede Johanna Larsson 6-4, 6-1, while France's Kristina Mladenovic doused Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 7-5, 6-2.
Pennetta is rewarded with a second-rounder against world No. 1 superstar and Miami stalwart Serena Williams.
The ageless Kimiko Date-Krumm cruised in her first-round match as well, with the 42-year-old Japanese native routing South African Chanelle Scheepers in a 6-2, 6-0 verdict.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ayumi Morita overcame Brit Heather Watson 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 and Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh edged out Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 7-6 (17-15). Hsieh will battle reigning Sony Open champion Agnieszka Radwanska in the round of 64.
Other Day-1 wins came for China's Peng Shuai, Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens and Croat Ajla Tomljanovic.
The top seeds here are a trio of current and/or former world No. 1s -- the aforementioned Williams, Victoria Azarenka and last week's Indian Wells champion Maria Sharapova.
The reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open titlist Williams is a five-time Miami champ, while the Aussie Open champion Azarenka titled here in 2009 and 2011 and the French Open queen Sharapova was last year's Miami runner-up to Radwanska. Sharapova has lost in the last two finals at this Premier Mandatory WTA event.
All 32 seeds received opening-round byes.
The winner of this 13-day tournament will earn $724,000.
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