Vinci makes winning start at WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai

Italian veteran Roberta Vinci continued her fine end-of-season form with victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in her first round robin outing at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai on Wednesday.

   In the Group D match, one break in each set proved enough for Vinci to close out the 6-4, 6-4 win in one hour and 30 minutes.

   The decisive moment in the opening set came in the fifth game, Kuznetsova coughing up a series of errors from the baseline before surrendering serve with a double fault.

   The Russian continued to struggle in the opening game of the second set when Vinci got three more break points and only the first one was needed.

   "I'm really happy. Today was a tough match, and it's a tough group for me," Vinci said. "The court is not so slow, but I think the balls are a little bit heavy. But it's nice - the stadium is not so big and also the crowd are great."

   "Two sets against Svetlana is not always easy. She's a great player. She won Moscow, so probably she was in confidence, but I played well today."

   In Group B, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain defeated Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-0, 6-0 in just under an hour as the latter was struggling with a left knee injury in Zhuhai.

   Petkovic had already lost her first match to Elina Svitolina on Tuesday, and she needed a win over Navarro to remain in contention in Zhuhai, but a consistent Spaniard and a niggling left knee injury made it impossible.

   "It's a difficult situation because I've known Andrea for a long time," Navarro said after the match. "She's really professional, a little bit injured in her left knee, I think. I really appreciate that she fought because she was on the court the whole time, and didn't retire. She played not only for herself, but for the fans and for me."

   "Not a lot of players on the circuit would stay on court with a situation like that, but she did."

   In Group C, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic beat Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.  Endi