Li advances to 2nd round in Sydney International

Defending champion Li Na moved into the second round of the Sydney International with a comprehensive 6-0, 6-3 win over Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova on Monday.

The fourth-seeded Li won the first nine games and finished off the first-round match in 66 minutes.

Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova had a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Peng Shuai of China to set up a second-round match against No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, who had a first-round bye.

Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania routed Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson 6-1, 6-1 to move into a second-round encounter against No. 2 Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion who can displace Wozniacki atop the rankings by winning the Sydney tournament.

With nine of the Top 10 players in the Sydney draw, Kvitova is reluctant to talk about her aims for the top spot even after winning four singles - including a match against Wozniacki - to help Czech Republic win the Hopman Cup on the weekend.

"I'm still hearing this question about the first position in WTA," Kvitova said on Monday. "Sometimes it's really crazy. I don't know what I have to answer all the time, but what I still say is that I'm not really focused on the first spot."

In other first-round matches, third-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland 6-2, 6-1, eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France beat Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-3, 6-3, Brisbane International finalist Daniela Hantuchova beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-5, 6-2, Andrea Petkovic of Germany beat Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 and two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova ousted sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-2 in an all-Russia match.

In the men's draw, sixth-seeded Ryan Sweeting of the United States edged Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5 and Poland's Lukasz Kubot had a 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Ivan Dodig of Croatia.