BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- World number five Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic was hardly troubled by Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova en route to the second round of the China Open tennis tournament here on Saturday.

The 22-year-old needed just one hour and 10 minutes to defeat Hantuchova 6-2, 6-3 in the most absorbing match on the first day of the WTA Premier Mandatory tournament.

Hantuchova had a flying start into the match, but Kvitova, last year's Wimbledon winner, found her way out quickly, using her sizzling baseline attack to break twice and take the first set at 6-2. After that, the Czech prodigy never looked back. Kvitova has won all five encounters against Hantuchova.

Kvitova's reward will be a second round match against Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, who overcame Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6-4, 6-1.

In a battle of future stars, Chinese player Zhang Shuai defeated her compatriot Wang Qiang 6-3, 6-2. At 23 and 20 respectively, both players are expected to follow steps of the likes of tennis stars Li Na and Zheng Jie in the host country.

Zhang's next opponent will be defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who enjoyed bye in the opening round.

Zheng Saisai, another prospect from China, lost to Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-3. Zheng, Wang and Zhang all entered main draw through wildcards issued by the organizing committee.

Earlier, former world number one Ana Ivanovic from Serbia beat American Christina Mchale 6-3, 6-2 to reach next round. Enditem

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