Dinara Safina made a scrappy start to her Beijing duel with Serena Williams for the world number one spot by beating Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the $6.6 million China Open on Sunday.
The Russian must at least match Williams's progress at the Olympic tennis centre over the next week to retain the number one ranking on October 12, according to the WTA.
The 23-year-old's victory over 59th-ranked Vinci was certainly an improvement on her first round loss to Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-chen at the Pan Pacific Open last week but it was not wholly convincing.
Broken early in both sets, Safina immediately evened matters up with breaks of her own but was then forced to scrap it out with the dogged Italian to claim victory in a little under 90 minutes.
Earlier on centre court, sixth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova damaged hopes of a first local champion with a 7-6, 7-5 defeat of China's number two Zheng Jie.
The French Open champion, three times a finalist and winner of the 2006 title here, also battled back after former Wimbledon semi-finalist Zheng grabbed service breaks early in both sets to secure a place in the second round.
"It's hard to play Chinese in China, but I knew it's not gonna be worse than the Olympics so I was fine with that," said Kuznetsova, who was beaten by China's number one Li Na in the first round of last year's Beijing Olympics.
