Czech tennis star Karolina Pliskova has easily beaten Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic in the first round of the BMW Malaysian Open.
The third seed, who won the competition last year as her first and only WTA title, thrashed her opponent 6-2, 6-2 in the game that was postponed from Monday due to rain.
Pliskova, 22, ranks 75th in the world, while Krunic ranks 158th.
Seventh seed Donna Vekic of Croatia, who at 17 ranks 95 in the world, had a poor match start against the much lower ranked Chan Yung-Jan but eventually defeated the Taiwanese 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
It was a bad day for Japan's eighth seeded Ayumi Morita. The 113th-ranked, who used to be among the top 50 players, lost 4-6, 2-6 to Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan - who is now world number 126 down from a career high of 23 in 2013 - scrapped through, triumphing over Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Pliskova's twin sister, Kristyna Pliskova, who ranks 139, beat higher-ranked Timea Babos of Hungary 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-4.
First-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, who ranks 10th, will play on Wednesday in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, which often experiences heavy afternoon downpours that have marred play.
The tournament was dealt a setback when crowd-puller and former world number one Venus Williams of the US pulled out, reportedly due to a throat infection.
