Tuesday 9 September 2014 18:22, UK
Top seed Sabine Lisicki held off Monica Niculescu to secure her place in the second round of the inaugural Prudential Hong Kong Open.
The world No 31 from Germany survived a major scare after losing the opening set against Romanian Niculescu, ranked 60th in the world, and then being taken to a tie-break in the second.
However, the 2013 Wimbledon runner-up, weathered the storm and eventually took the victory 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 in a clash that lasted almost two and a half hours.
Lisicki, who received a wild card to play in Hong Kong, has struggled for form this year and aside from Wimbledon, where she reached the quarter-finals, has failed to win more than two matches at any tournament.
And she faces another potentially awkward match next as well as she comes up against Holland's Kiki Bertens, who caused a shock on day one when she knocked out eighth seed Anna Schmiedlova from Slovakia 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
Lisicki was not the only leading player to struggle on Tuesday, with third seed Karolina Pliskova also needing to recover from a set down to beat Polona Hercog 2-6 6-4 6-3.
Christina McHale, the fourth seed from the United States, was not so fortunate. She was beaten 6-4 5-7 6-2 by Italian Francesca Schiavone, who will now face Kimiko Date Krumm after the 43-year-old Japanese veteran saw off Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-3.
There was less trouble for the three other seeds in action, all of whom claimed straight sets victories. Fifth-seeded Zheng Jie beat Misa Eguchi 6-1 7-6 (7-5), sixth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer defeated Elizaveta Kulichkova 6-4 6-4, and No 7 Jana Cepelova was a 6-2 6-1 winner over Chanelle Scheepers.
The other first-round winners were Chinese trio Zhu Lin, Zheng Saisai and Zhang Kai-Lin, plus Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium, Australian Jarmila Gajdosova and Puerta Rican Monica Puig.
