No.4 seed Tatjana Maria showed off the full range of her skills in the first round of the Thailand Open en route to defeating qualifier Arianne Hartono 6-3, 6-1.

The 36-year-old mother-of-two is one of the best defenders on tour, and at 3-1 up in the first set illustrated it perfectly, scampering from one side of the court to the other before putting a short ball from Hartono away.

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As Hartono served to stay in the set a few games later, though, Maria switched up her tactics to all-out attack. The former Wimbledon semifinalist reached set point with a bold chip-and-charge.

Her quick reflexes enabled Maria to keep her momentum in the first game of the second set, standing her ground at net before carving a backhand volley past her Dutch opponent. But she saved her most miraculous shot for the fourth game. Hartono seemed to have got the better of Maria with a delicate drop shot spinning away from her into the tramlines -- but the German sprinted across the court and somehow angled a pass out of reach.

Maria wasn't the only player bringing out the hot shots on Tuesday. Teenagers Alina Korneeva and Taylah Preston had both marked themselves out as ones to watch during the Australian swing, and the pair had come through qualifying here.

Highlights: Zhu d. Preston | Y.Wang d. Korneeva | Putintseva d. Naklo | Volynets d. Zidansek | Schmiedlova d. Hontama | Rodionova d. Yuan

Both were ultimately outdone by more experienced opponents -- defending champion and No.2 seed Zhu Lin held off 18-year-old Preston 6-4, 7-5, while Wang Yafan defeated 16-year-old Korneeva 6-2, 6-4. But the youngsters certainly showed what they could do: trailing 4-3 in the second set, Preston ended a 20-shot exchange with a forehand ripper down the line on the run; and in the first game of her second set, Korneeva got the better of Wang in a thrilling rat-a-tat net exchange.

Elsewhere, No.7 seed Yulia Putintseva survived a scare from wild card Thasaporn Naklo, who was making her tour-level debut. Naklo, 22, went toe-to-toe with Putintseva in terms of drop shots, winning the first set from 4-0 down. But the Kazakhstani took control in the end, winning 10 of the last 12 games from 3-2 down in the second set.