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Caroline Wozniacki wins opening match in China

By The Sports Xchange
Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark removes sweat from her face between points in her defeat to Angelique Kerber of Germany in the semifinals in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2016 US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on September 8, 2016. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark removes sweat from her face between points in her defeat to Angelique Kerber of Germany in the semifinals in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2016 US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on September 8, 2016. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, two days removed from winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open, rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 16th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open on Monday in Wuhan, China.

Formerly the world's No. 1 player but currently ranked 22nd, Wozniacki earned her sixth win in a row.

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"I felt surprisingly good on court today," she said. "I was expecting to be tired, maybe not have the right timing, since it's completely different conditions. But I played well and I was happy with getting a late match today. I got to sleep in, relax all day. Yeah, it was good."

Wozniacki also reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open this month after a run of poor results in the summer. She was slowed earlier this year by an ankle injury.

"I think in practice I've been able to play this way for a little while," she said. "Obviously after the injury it takes a little while to get back into it. I felt like at least a month, month and a half, I started playing really well in practice.

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"It was the right timing for me at the U.S. Open that it kind of went my way there. Then Tokyo, obviously. Good first win today."

Other winners Monday at Wuhan included 10th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 11th-seeded Johanna Konta of Great Britain and 14th-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Three second-round matches were played. Fourth-seeded Simona Halep knocked off a fellow Romanian when Irina-Camelia Begu retired while trailing 6-3, 2-0. Fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova topped Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-5 in a battle of Czech players, and seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain downed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-4, 6-3.

Tashkent Open

Two seeded Japanese players posted wins in the opening round of the

Tashkent (Uzbekistan) Open.

Fourth-seeded Nao Hibino beat Uzbek wild card Komola Umarova 6-3, 6-1, and fifth-seeded Kurumi Nara defeated Ukrainian wild card Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-2.

Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic, the ninth seeded, posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over Japanese qualifier Hiroko Kuwata.

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