French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the second round of the Sydney International with a 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-5 victory over fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova on Sunday.
The third-seeded Kuznetsova, who also won the 2004 U.S. Open, trailed 2-0 in the deciding set before breaking back to take control of the set and the match.
Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova cruised to a comfortable 6-3, 6-0 victory over France's Virginie Razzano. Defending champion Elena Dementieva, who beat Kuznetsova in last year's Sydney final, defeated Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 7-5.
Only three first-round women's matches were scheduled Sunday in the joint ATP-WTA tournament. Top-seeded Serena Williams, who has a first-round bye, is expected to play her first singles match on Tuesday.
Williams was drawn for a potential second-round match against Justine Henin, but Henin injured her left leg in a Brisbane International final loss to fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters on Saturday and had to pull out of the Sydney event.
Henin, playing in her first official tournament in 20 months, said she'd strained her upper left leg earlier in the week and aggravated it in the Brisbane final.
"It was a bit sore in the last few days and really got worse today in the third set," Henin said after her 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) loss to U.S. Open champion Clijsters.
"I hope it's not that serious and that I'm going to be able to recover soon, but it would be just a great, great mistake to go and play in Sydney."
The top four men's seeded players in Sydney, including top-seeded Gael Monfils of France and second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, also had first-round byes.
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