Bartoli opens Bali tournament with win

BALI, Indonesia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Marion Bartoli opened round-robin play Wednesday at the $600,000 Tournament of Champions event in Indonesia with a straight-set victory.

Bartoli dropped serve just once in a 6-4, 6-4 win over Magdalena Rybarikova in Group A play. Bartoli, despite four double faults, was basically solid through the match. She forced Rybarikova, who is seeded 11th, into nine break-point situations and won nearly half of the points on Rybarikova's serve.

No. 2-seeded Samantha Stosur, heading up Group B, also won but was pushed to three sets by ninth-seeded Agnes Szavay before prevailing 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Stosur didn't face a break point outside the second set.

Third-seeded Yanina Wickmayer was a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over 12th-seeded Kimiko Date Krumm in Group C and Group D saw the day's lone upset when 10th-seeded Aravane Rezai stopped fourth-seeded Sabine Lisicki 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

There are 12 players invited to the five-day Tournament of Champions. If a player makes it through the competition undefeated, she will win $200,000.