BRISBANE — Starting the 2013 schedule a couple of days before the New Year put Serena Williams under a little more pressure than usual to produce a convincing victory in her first match of the season. After saving five break points as she adjusted to a strong cross breeze in the first game, the 15-time major winner needed less than an hour to beat No. 21-ranked Varvara Lepchenko 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Brisbane International Sunday. Serena won 31 of her last 32 matches in the second half of the 2012 season, including titles at Wimbledon, the Olympics, US Open and the WTA Championships. She won 58 of 62 matches in total this year, a win-loss record she didn't want to diminish in any way. Serena didn't show any signs of being hampered by the minor surgery on her big toes which forced her to withdraw from a Dec. 29 exhibition in Thailand, moving freely throughout the match against the Uzbekistan-born Lepchenko, who now represents the United States. Eight of the top 10 women are contesting the Brisbane International, with Azarenka and Sharapova getting byes in the first round. Sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and will next meet Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Kvitova, who won the 2011 Brisbane International before claiming her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, was unable to convert her first match point at 5-2 in the second set, then dropped a service game before Suarez Navarro's late comeback ended with an error on the second match point. In other matches, Australian wildcard entry Jarmila Gajdosova had a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over 16th-ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy to set up a second-round match against No. 2-seeded Sharapova. Urszula Radwanska of Poland beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 and Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova had a 7-5, 6-2 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain. Australia's Samantha Stosur was headlining the night session Monday, hoping to give the home crowd something to celebrate. Robson advances In China, seventh-seeded Laura Robson of Britain cruised into the second round of the Shenzhen Open Sunday, beating Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania 6-2, 6-1 in her first match of the season. Fourth-seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan also advanced easily, beating Melina Czhink of Hungary 6-3, 6-2. In Sunday's other matches, Annika Beck of Germany beat Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-4, and Monica Niculescu of Romania ousted Chinese wild-card entry Saisai Zheng 6-4, 7-5. Petkovic to miss Open Former top 10 player Andrea Petkovic's hopes of playing at the Australian Open have been dashed after she suffered a knee injury at the Hopman Cup. The injury-plagued German was forced to retire from her opening singles match at the mixed teams tournament Saturday due to a right knee problem, having just won the first set against Australian teenager Ashleigh Barty. Petkovic will be replaced by Tatjana Malek for Germany's remaining contests against Italy and Serbia. Ferrer deals Spain new blow Spain's 2013 Davis Cup hopes, already hit by Rafael Nadal's injury-hit absence, was dealt another blow Saturday when world No. 5 David Ferrer said he would skip the opening tie of the season against Canada. Ferrer's agent, Albert Molina, confirmed that the 30-year-old would sit out the Feb. 1-3 World Group visit to Vancouver. — Agencies
