TIANJIN, China - No.2 seed Caroline Garcia needed little more than an hour to book her place in the second round of the Tianjin Open on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Chinese qualifier Xun Fang Ying.
Despite over 200 places between them in the world rankings, the 23-year-old home favorite kept pace with the World No.16 in the opening set, coming from an early break down to level at 4-4.
However, the French No.1 broke again - this time at love - in the ninth game of the opener en route to sealing it, and never trailed over the course of the second set to book her place in the second round in 69 minutes.
Garcia dropped just four points on serve in the second set, and also won the last four games of the match to set a second-round meeting with another Chinese qualifier in Zhang Yuxuan, who ousted Irina-Camelia Begu, 7-5, 6-3.
In other first round action in the bottom half of the draw, No.3 seed Elise Mertens battled through a tough opener before seeing off China's Zhu Lin, 7-5, 6-1, while Slovak qualifier Jana Cepelova defeated Wang Yafan in just under two-and-a-half hours, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
