Garbine Muguruza overcame a rocky start to the defence of her China Open title to see off Irina-Camelia Begu and reach the second round.
The Spaniard defeated Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets in the final of this WTA Premier event in Beijing last year, but she had to come from behind to oust Begu 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Ranked 26 in the world, Begu was 3-2 up with a break in the decider, but Muguruza hit back in fine style, reeling off four successive games to book a meeting with Yulia Putintseva.
MUGURUZA SETS SIGHTS ON SINGAPORE
As well as a successful defence of her title, Muguruza also has one eye on securing her place at the WTA Tour Finals later this month.
She currently lies sixth in the Road to Singapore standings. "Definitely Singapore was a great motivation to try to find my spot," she said. "Well, Beijing is one of the biggest tournaments we have, so for sure I have a great opportunity to do it well and qualify."
FROM OLYMPIC GOLD TO A BIG FAT BAGEL
Seven weeks ago, Monica Puig defeated strong favourite Angelique Kerber to take Olympic gold at Rio 2016.
On Saturday, the Puerto Rican was thrashed 6-2, 6-0 by Yanina Wickmayer in just over an hour, holding serve once in seven attempts as her opponent booked a clash with fourth seed Simona Halep.
CIBULKOVA ENTERS ON THE BACK OF WUHAN WOE
Dominika Cibulkova was unable to prevent a blistering Petra Kvitova from romping to a 6-1, 6-1 success in Saturday's Wuhan Open final. There will be little time for Cibulkova to lick her wounds, however, with the 10th seed set for a second-round encounter against Alize Cornet.
MEANWHILE...
There were also wins for Belinda Bencic, Sabine Lisicki and Ekaterina Makarova. Sunday's schedule sees previous champions and former World No.1s Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki in action.
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