Leylah Fernandez started with a victory at the strong WTA 1000 Wuhan Open tournament with a prize fund of 3.22 million USD.
The Canadian tennis player missed three set points in the first set, but defeated the 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider (Russia) by 2-1 (6:7, 6:3, 6:3) and advanced to the next round.
The 10th-seeded Anna Kalinskaya (Russia) defeated the qualifier Anna Bondar (Hungary) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:3) in 74 minutes.
Two more of the seeds won their first matches. The ninth-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) eliminated Madison Keys (USA) after 2-0 (7:6, 6:2), and 15th in the main draw Donna Vekic (Croatia) defeated Elise Mertens (Belgium) with 2-1 (3:6, 6:1, 6:3).
In other matches, Magdalena Frech (Poland) eliminated Mai Hontama (Japan) by 2-0 (6:0, 6:4), and the qualifier Erika Andreeva (Russia) defeated Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine) with 2-0 (7:5, 6:4).
