China's Wang Qiang ended her four-year hiatus from returning to her hometown's tournament by walloping Australia's Arina Rodionova 6-3 6-4 in the opening round of the 2019 Tianjin Open on Tuesday. 

Rodionova failed to make much of an impact throughout the match, while the 27-year-old Wang, who aims for her first title of 2019, showed some of the form that had earned her the highest seed in Tianjin due to the withdrawal of Guangzhou Open champion Sofia Kenin. 

Next up for the Chinese is Britain's Heather Watson, who had to pull out all the stops before battling past dogged Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-4 7-6.

China's 18-year-old Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu also secured their places in the second round with victories over Ma Shuyue and American Kristie Ahn respectively.

Later in the day, former Tianjin champion Peng Shuai moved into the second round with a 6-2 7-6(1) win over qualifier You Xiaodi. She will next face a much sterner test against Dayana Yastremska.  

The high-flying Yastremska demonstrated her fine form by outclassing China's Zhu Lin 6-2, 6-3. The Ukrainian also stormed into the Beijing Open doubles finals alongside Jelena Ostapenko last week. 

Meanwhile, Zheng Saisai overcame a slow start to get past her compatriot Duan Yingying 7-6 (4), 6-2. Duan had just partnered Veronika Kudermetova to win the doubles title at Wuhan Open but she could not resist Zheng's ruthless performance in a hard-fought singles contest. The No. 7 seed will play Russian youngster Veronika Kudermetova next.