Estonia's Kaia Kanepi avenged her Beijing Olympics loss to Li Na when she beat the No. 2 seed 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the ASB Classic on Tuesday.
Kanepi lost in three sets at Beijing in 2008 to Li, who reached the semifinals, but she dominated their return match Tuesday, winning in only 67 minutes.
"This is definitely one of my biggest wins,'' the unseeded Kanepi said. "The wind was very difficult so conditions were hard but it was the same for both of us. Because of the wind I just tried to hit as many balls into the court as possible.''
Kanepi broke Li's serve three times to win the first set in only 28 minutes and came back from 3-1 down in the second set to win five straight games. She took the set in 39 minutes on her first match point.
Li said she struggled with Kanepi's strength.
"Everyone can see she had a huge serve and on her service game I could do nothing,'' she said. "Also she hit so hard. I couldn't control the point.''
Li will play her next tournament in Sydney before moving on to the Australian Open in Melbourne which she missed last year because of a knee injury.
India's Sania Mirza also progressed to the second round Tuesday, beating Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Mirza, who won the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi at last year's Australian Open, looked in good form after overcoming first-set nerves.
Fourth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy beat Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-2, 6-3 and fifth-seeded Virginie Razzano of France beat Romania's Monica Niculescu 7-5, 6-4.
The start of play Tuesday was delayed almost 20 minutes by a security scare. Players and fans were evacuated and the street outside the central Auckland stadium sealed off when an unattended bag was found. Police later said the bag belonged to a fan.
The discovery of the bag coincided with a protest against the presence at the tournament of Israeli player Shahar Peer, but organizers said the events were apparently unconnected.
The New Zealand protest group Global Peace and Justice earlier Tuesday said it had written to Peer, 22, asking her to withdraw from the tournament "as a demonstration of your commitment to peace.'' Global Peace and Justice also wrote to Peer and protested her presence at last year's tournament.
The group said it opposes Israel's treatment of Palestinians and advocates a sporting boycott of Israel.
Peer won her first-round match Tuesday 7-5, 6-3 over Polona Hercog of Slovenia.
