Tennis - Brisbane International - Pat Rafter Arena, Brisbane, Australia - 5/1/17 Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova reaches to hit a shot during her match against Spain's Garbine Muguruza. REUTERS/Steve Holland
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Svetlana Kuznetsova opened the defence of her Sydney International title with a comfortable 6-1 6-4 victory over Irina-Camelia Begu on Sunday as the Australian Open warm-up event suffered a pair of big-name withdrawals.
The Russian fifth seed started strongly by winning 10 of the first 11 games and after her Romanian opponent rallied in the second set to tie it up at 4-4, Kuznetsova broke again in the ninth game and served out the victory in 77 minutes.
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