Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama defeated Russian wild card Anastasia Pivovarova 6-3 7-6 in the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Championship in Miami.

Sugiyama, 32, eased through as ahe began her 14th appearance in the Florida tournament.

Pivovarova, only 17, was playing in her second WTA event.

France's Emilie Loit defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual 7-6 6-4 to set up a clash with second-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia - the newly-crowned Indian Wells champion.

Chinese Peng Shuai went through at the expense of Eleni Daniilidou of Greece with the score at 1-1 after Daniilidou retired with an injury.

Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada won a three-set match with France's Aravane Rezai 2-6 6-4 6-3.

Italian Tathiana Garbin was also taken to three sets by American Melanie Oudin, but won 7-5 2-6 6-1 to reach the second round.

Frenchwoman Camille Pin beat Olga Savchuk (Ukraine) 6-1 7-5.

Defending champion Serena Williams, seeded eighth, launches her campaign with a second-round match on Friday, as does world number one Justine Henin of Belgium.

Both received byes in the first round.

AFP