Women’s ninth seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia brushed past Slovakian youngster Kristina Kucova 6-2 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Australian Open 2010 on Wednesday.
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The 25-year-old Russian, who played with a heavily strapped right ankle, moved freely to take the match in just under an hour, showing no signs of the injury which forced her out of the Auckland tournament earlier in the month.
A semi-finalist here last year, Zvonareva broke the 19-year-old Kucova in the fourth game, chasing down any short balls and sending down some menacing approach shots.
Kucova, the 2007 US Open juniors champion, was appearing in only her second Grand Slam, and she rose to the occasion and broke back, assisted by a string of errors by Zvonareva.
Zvonareva then stepped up, earning another break to edge ahead 4-2. She held her serve before crushing Kucova’s next service game, winning it to love and wrapping up the first set.
Zvonareva looked vulnerable in the first game of the second set as successive double backhand winners from the 108th-ranked Slovak saw her grab a break point opportunity.
A serve-volley combination from Zvonareva saw off the challenge, and she blasted a signature backhand winner to hold serve.
It was one-way traffic from there as Zvonareva took successive breaks, with Kucova lacking the court speed to reach the Russian’s powerfully-accurate groundstrokes.
After taking the second set 6-0 in just 28 minutes, Zvonareva advances to the second round, where she will meet world No. 45 Iveta Benesova from the Czech Republic. Benesova defeated Kai-Chen Chang from Chinese Taipei 7-5 6-2.
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