The WTA finals kicked off in Singapore with all initial round robin matches won with relative ease.
In the White Group, whose matches began first, Karolina Pliskova (3) was at the peak of her powers, defeating Venus Williams (5) 6-2 6-2.
Pliskova won 54% of points on the Williams serve and converted five of twelve break points in the match.
Garbine Muguruza (2) was almost as efficient in her victory over Jelena Ostapenko (7) 6-3 6-4.
It was Muguruza’s returning of second serve which impressed in set one, but her much improved points won % on her own first serve in set two which enabled a position of strength from which she won in straight.
Day two was the Red Group’s chance to shine and Simona Halep (1) did just that in the opening match against Caroline Garcia (8).
The scoreline was 6-4 6-2 but could have been closer had Garcia converted break points as well as Halep did - one from six compared with four from five.
Three of the break points came in game four of set two, with the chance to level at 2-2. Halep managed to save, however, and proceeded to break again for 4-1 and effectively seal the match.
Up second were Elina Svitolina (4) and Caroline Wozniacki (6).
The performance of the first round of matches was left to last as Wozniacki tore apart Svitolina 6-2 6-0 and served a severe warning to all 7 others that the dangerous Dane was not here just for kicks.
Caroline smashed the Svitolina second serve 11 of the 12 times it was delivered to her and she broke the Ukraine serve each time a chance was created - five from five.
Elina was zero from one - that one in game one of set two
Watch out number one ranking chasers - Wozniacki is here to win the tournament and other stuff is purely ancillary.
The men are playing too, believe it or not.
In Vienna, Sascha Zverev is top seed and he won his opening match against Viktor Troicki. Not so fortunate were fifth seed John Isner, and veteran Feliciano Lopez.
In Basel the Federer presence is hard to miss as he is aiming for title number eight here. He has made the final in his last ten appearances, but this year he has form players in the draw aside him, including Cilic, Goffin and del Potro.
Even his first round match against unseeded Frances Tiafoe presents a challenge of sorts, considering the five set match the two gave the Flushing Meadows crowd in this years US Open. This time however it is played in Roger’s back yard.
So far, not many major highlights, and one seed through to round two - Roberto Bautista Agut (6), winning his opener over qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin.
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