Williams qualifies for second round in Hong Kong Open

Venus Williams shrugged off a slow start to beat Japan’s Risa Ozaki in straight sets and book her place in the second round of the Hong Kong Open.

The 36-year-old was broken in the opening game of the match against the world number 117 and would lose her serve again before wrapping up the opening set.

Williams had fewer problems in the second set, racing into a 3-0 advantage and holding out comfortably for a 6-4 6-1 win in one hour and 13 minutes.

The second seed will face Alize Cornet in the second round after the French player cruised past American Varvara Lepchenko with an impressive 6-3 6-2 win.

Eighth seed Daria Gavrilova of Australia took just 67 minutes to complete an even more one-sided 6-0 6-2 win over China’s world number 147 Lin Zhu.

Also on Monday there were first round wins for Katerina Siniakova, Louisa Chirico and Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was a first round winner in the Tianjin Open as she broke Pauline Parmentier six times on her way to a 6-1 6-3 win.

Chinese wild card Yafan Wang pulled off an upset with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 win over Kazakh sixth seed Yulia Putintseva, while qualifier Kai-Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei surprised American Vania King 6-1 6-2.

Donna Vekic beat China’s Kai-Lin Zhang 3-6 7-5 6-3 and there were also wins for Danka Kovinic and Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka.