Bartoli, Stosur makes winning starts 

Source: ReutersAustralia's Samantha Stosur

Top seed Marion Bartoli of France overcame Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 6-4 in round robin play at the Tournament of Champions on Thursday.

Number two seed Samantha Stosur showed no sign of jet lag after playing doubles at the WTA Championships in Doha at the weekend.

She won 6-2 3-6 6-1 against Hungary's Agnes Szavay whose 12 double-faults contrasted with the Australian's 10 aces.

Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, seeded three, was tested by 39-year old Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan before earning a 7-6 6-3 victory but fourth seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany was beaten 1-6 6-3 6-4 by Aravane Rezai of France.

After taking the first set Bartoli needed patience in the second, failing to convert three break points in the opening game before breaking at 4-4 on her sixth break point of the set.

"I'm really happy to win in two sets and I was quite happy with the level of the game," Bartoli told reporters. "The conditions were pretty difficult because the court is very fast and it's not easy to get used to it.

"There is only the one court and we are 12 players so you can't get a lot of time to practise on it. And it's the end of the year and everyone is tired so it's not easy."

Entertaining match

The most entertaining match was Wickmayer's struggle against Date Krumm, as the US Open semi-finalist twice needed to recover a break in the first set before holding off three break points that would have seen her trailing 4-0 in the second.

"She's a really tough player. I think she's one of the fittest players on tour right now and I think this is one of her favourite surfaces where it goes really fast," said Wickmayer.

"Until 3-0 she was playing really well. She was really aggressive and serving better and running everywhere.

"But I kept on thinking it's only one break. I tried to serve well and get into the court more the way she did and I kept fighting for every point."

Lisicki began well, breaking for 2-0 with a fine crosscourt backhand winner, and Rezai's third double-fault gave the German a second break for 5-1 before she served out the set.

But Rezai earned a break for 2-0 in the second set when Lisicki put a backhand volley wide, and in the final set she saved seven of eight break points, breaking Lisicki twice.

"It was very difficult at the beginning because she's a very tough player, hitting the ball very strong and fast," said Rezai. "After the first set I tried to play more intelligent and move her side to side and not miss my first serve."