Wildcard Wei Sijia defeated sixth-seeded Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-4 in the women's singles first round at the Guangzhou Open in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, on Monday.

In her first match against Sramkova, the Chinese showed no fear but remarkable aggression. After the first set reached 1-1, the home player broke her opponent twice to clinch the set quickly and led 1-0 in the match.

The second set was much closer as Sramkova improved her form. Though Wei again converted a break point first in the third game to build a 3-1 lead, the Slovakian returned the favor in the sixth to tie the battle 3-3. Wei then scored her third break of the match in Game 7 and held in Game 8 to lead again. Sramkova took the ninth to keep the match alive, but only by one more game. Wei sealed the deal by holding her service in Game 10.

Chinese veteran Zhang Shuai began her women's doubles competition at the Guangzhou Pen with a victory after pairing with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic to beat Liu Leyi and Nima Zhuoma of China 6-0, 6-1.

Zhang, 35, will also participate in the singles' event at the tournament and her opponent in the first round will be No. 8 seed Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia. The Chinese veteran has won the Guangzhou Open twice as her first and second Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour singles titles in 2013 and 2017.