The Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, number 19 in the WTA ranking, started with a 6-3 and 6-4 victory against the Chinese Saisai Zheng, number 46 in the world, and sealed the pass to the second round of the Rome tournament.
Garbiñe, who had just lost in the first round in Madrid against the Croatian Petra Martic, took an hour and 37 minutes to beat Zheng, against whom she had already won twice this year, in Dubai and at the Australian Open.
The Spanish was behind a break in the first set (1-3), but managed to break in the sixth and eighth games to seal a 5-0 run and close the set 6-3.
Both players had terrible service percentages in the second set. There were nine bankruptcies in the first nine games, until Garbiñe, after leading 5-4, kept his service to sentence the game with the final 6-4.
The player of Spanish nationality and born in Caracas 25 years ago, will face in the second round one between the Danish Caroline Wozniacki, number 12 in the world and former number 1, and the American Danielle Collins, number 30. EFE