Caroline Wozniacki Eases Past Dementieva

Caroline Wozniacki made the perfect start to her end of year championships in Doha as she cruised past Elena Dementieva 6-1 6-1.

The Dane comes into the tournament as the world number one and is looking to end the year in that position, just one more win in the round robin phase will see off a potential challenge from second seed Vera Zvonareva.

And it was a convincing victory for the twenty year old as her opponent seemed to be struggling with an ankle injury.

Dementieva has been short of form for most of the year, retiring from her semi-final at the French Open earlier in the year, and she has failed to recapture the form that propelled her to world number three in 2009.

Wozniacki was a force from the baseline as her powerful groundstrokes and returns were too much for Dementieva to handle.

She broke through Dementieva's defences five times and lost just eight points in her own seven service games. She wrapped up the victory in just fifty three minutes - dropping just two games.

Speaking to the WTA after the match Wozniacki said: "Elena's a great player so to pull this one out was nice. I'm really happy to get through my first match.

"I love it here - it's fantastic in Doha, the crowd and the support. It was a big help for me today and I'm looking forward to my next one."

In the other match in the Maroon Group there was a re-match between Samantha Stosur and Francesca Schiavone, who contested the French Open final this summer.

And it was Stosur who exacted a little bit of revenge as she saw off the Italian in straight sets. However the Australian made a very slow start and soon found herself 4-0 down in the opening set.

But she hit back to take the next six games on the bounce to take the opening set 6-4.

They were locked together at 4-4 in the second set before Stosur made her move to get the crucial break before serving for the match. She serve out with no problems to wrap up the 6-4 6-4 win.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw