BASTAD, Sweden: Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open by beating Sesil Karatancheva of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Williams broke the 131st-ranked Karatancheva's serve five times to advance at the clay-court tournament on Sweden's west coast.
She will next face 104th-ranked Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, who beat 16-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, sixth-seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, Mathilda Johansson of France, Teliana Pereira of Brazil and Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands also advanced.
Hingis unretires to play doubles at SoCal Open
Tennis Hall of Famer Martina Hingis plans to come out of retirement and play doubles at the Southern California Open.
Hingis will play with Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.
The 32-year-old Hingis will be making her first WTA tournament appearance since September 2007.
The former No. 1 player in the world was often troubled by foot injuries. She retired for the second time in 2007, when she drew a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. Hingis denied taking the drug but did not appeal the ruling.
Hingis won 43 career WTA singles titles, including five Grand Slam singles championships and 37 career WTA doubles titles, including nine Grand Slam doubles championships.
The tournament is July 27-Aug. 4.
Paire beats Montanes in Hamburg
In Hamburg, Germany, ninth-seeded Benoit Paire of France advanced to the third round of the German Tennis Championships on Tuesday by beating Albert Montanes of Spain 6-1, 6-4.
Gael Monfils beat 2010 Hamburg champion Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 to make the second round of the clay-court tournament. Golubev had to qualify for this year's event.
Among other first-round winners were Federico Delbonis of Argentina, Robin Haase of the Netherlands, Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany and three Spaniards - Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Albert Ramos and Marcel Granollers.
Serena advances to 2nd round in Bastad
