Wozniacki blitzes Bencic in Beijing

BEIJING, China - No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki got back to winning ways with a watertight 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Belinda Bencic in one hour and 21 minutes in the first round of the China Open.

The Swiss player had scored four consecutive victories over Wozniacki in 2015 as she soared up the rankings to a career high of World No.7 the following February, but the Australian Open champion's triumph today pulls the head-to-head deficit back to 3-4 with her most emphatic scoreline since their very first encounter, a 6-0, 6-0 win for Wozniacki in the first round of Istanbul in 2014.

Taking the ball early and moving it around the court on every stroke, Bencic's strategy was to be the aggressor at every opportunity. Her smooth technique made her off forehand and backhand down the line particularly effective when clicking, and over the course of the match the 21-year-old was near-impeccable on the drive volley.

However, although the former junior standout's prodigious talent for point construction was evident whenever she was executing her strokes well, Bencic struggled to find any consistency - particularly on big points. Having regained an early break with some brilliant hitting in the first set, the World No.41 was unable to convert a break point to go up 3-2 - and thereafter fell away, a cascade of 15 unforced errors seeing the first set slip away in just 32 minutes.

Wozniacki, however, was largely watertight. The 2010 champion's first serve was substantially more effective, winning her 68% of points behind it compared to just 44% for Bencic behind her own first delivery. Nonetheless, neither player would dominate on serve.

The second set opened with three breaks in the first four games - and following those exchanges, it was Wozniacki who seemed to be well on her way as she held 40-0 to take a 4-1 lead. But despite being pegged back as Bencic nailed a flurry of fantastic backhand winners, the closing stages of the match showed the Dane at her most razor-sharp.

Serving at 3-3, 30-30, with the match suddenly on a tightrope, Wozniacki elected to come to net - a rare decision that paid off as she nailed a forehand volley, before striking her more favored backhand down the line to hold. By contrast, at 30-30 in the following game, Bencic could not sustain the momentum from a pair of booming drive volleys, instead sending a backhand into the net before conceding her serve on a double fault.

As the Washington and New Haven quarterfinalist's unforced errors mounted, reaching a total of 34 to 22 winners, Wozniacki resumed control, serving the match out to 30 and finishing with, naturally, another backhand down the line. Next, the former World No.1 will seek to win consecutive matches for the first time since Eastbourne as she takes on Petra Martic in the second round.