Australia’s Samantha Stosur has cruised into the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a straight sets win over Chinese qualifier Kai-Lin Zhang.
The 12th-seeded Australian was untroubled in her 6-3 6-3 victory, breaking the world No.137’s serve at will throughout the match.
The win sets her up for a second round encounter with either China’s Shuai Zhang or Croatian, Ana Konjuh.
Should she progress to the quarters Stosur is drawn to play German top seed Angelique Kerber.
Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the 15th seed, also advanced with a 6-3 6-3 win over Swede Johanna Larsson, while Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova took a comprehensive 6-3 6-1 win over Chinese qualifier Lin Zhu.
Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was the only seeded casualty of the day. The 14th seed shocked 7-6 (8-6) 2-6 6-4 by Tunisian world No.172 Ons Jabeur.