No. 2 seed Kuznetsova through to 2nd round in Fez
Former U.S. and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova reached the second round of the Grand Prix SAR by beating Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-1, 7-5 on Tuesday.
The second-seeded Russian, whose last tour singles title came in 2010, broke Daniilidou seven times.
Third-seeded Petra Cetkovska of Czech Republic beat Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4, 6-2, and fifth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania advanced when Fatima Zahrae El Allami of Morocco retired after losing the first set 6-1.
Qualifiers Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Garbine Muguruza Blanco of Spain won their first-round matches along with Sweden's Mathilde Johansson and Spain's Laura Pous-Tio.
Bertens beat Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 7-5, and Muguruza Blanco outlasted Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
In late matches, Israel's Shahar Peer beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, and Arina Rodionova of Russia won the opening set 6-2 against Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky but retired when down 4-0 in the second.
Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands beat seventh-seeded Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (9) in a match that was halted Monday at 5-5 in the third set because of darkness.