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Serena Williams defeated Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova on the opening day of the WTA Championships. She had a 7-6, 7-5 win over the Russian and maintained to stay on course to end the year as world number one.
Second-ranked Serena served 11 aces to get the better of the French Open champion who led 6-4 in the first-set tiebreak. She will face Venus in her second round-robin match on Wednesday.
In the opening match in White Group, former world number one Jelena Jankovic was defeated 6-2, 6-3 by Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. World number one Safina will play her opening match against Jankovic on Wednesday while Azarenka takes on Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
The Eleven-time grand slam champion Serena is bidding to end the year top of the WTA rankings for the first time since 2002.
Williams, who needed treatment on her ankle in the second set, said,”At that point I thought I had ruined it for myself because I missed an easy shot to go 4-1 up in the breaker.”
