Venus Williams finally registered her first tour win of 2016 as she powered past Lee Pei-chi 6-3, 6-2 at the Taiwan Open Wednesday to set up a clash with Urszula Radwanska. The top seed and world No. 12 broke Taiwan's Lee, aged 21 and ranked 529th, three times in their first career meeting as she cantered to victory in less than an hour. It put the seven-time Grand Slam champion, 35, into the second round for the first time this season after she lost her opening matches at both Auckland and the Australian Open. Elsewhere, third seed Yulia Putintseva beat Japan's Miyu Kato 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 in round two, but fellow Kazakh seed Zarina Diyas fell 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 to Russia's Elizaveta Kulichkova. Pavlyuchenkova in round 2 Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was made to fight for a place in the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy Tuesday, beating Czech veteran Klara Koukalova in three sets. World No. 26 Pavlyuchenkova, who is seeded fifth in St. Petersburg, needed 2 hours, 14 minutes to beat qualifier Koukalova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Her reward is a second-round meeting with German Carina Witthoeft, who defeated Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-3, 6-3. Monica Niculescu of Romania, the world No. 37, moved into the second round earlier in the day with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Russia's Natalia Vikhlyantseva. Niculescu, seeded ninth, broke the 265th-ranked Russian teenager in the eighth game of the second set to go up 5-3, then held serve for the win in the Sibur Arena in St. Petersburg. Niculescu's opponent in the second round will be Hungary's Timea Babos. Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic was playing in her first tournament since a strong run at the Australian Open saw her beat Garbine Muguruza, but was out of sorts Tuesday, falling 6-3, 6-4 in the first round against Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova. Top-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland had a bye in the first round as did the next three seeded players: Roberta Vinci of Italy, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. France's Kristina Mladenovic, seeded seventh, lost in the first round to Laura Siegemund of Germany 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. Fritz wins opener Teenager Taylor Fritz, a promising American, won his opening-round match in the Memphis Open Tuesday night beating Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-4. It was the second ATP World Tour win for the 18-year-old. Fritz relied on 10 aces and solid ground game to move into the second round, where he'll play No. 2 seed Steve Johnson. The tournament's top four seeds - defending champion Kei Nishikori and Americans Johnson, Donald Young and Sam Querrey — received first-round byes. Fritz finished last year as the world's top-ranked junior and opened the season with a victory at a lower-level Tour event in Australia. He also qualified for the Australian Open, but lost in the opening round to American Jack Sock in five sets. In other first-round matches Tuesday, No. 7 seed John Millman and No. 8 Damir Dzumhur advanced. Also, Spain's Marcel Granollers beat Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, 6-1, 6-3; Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen defeated Australian Matthew Ebden, 6-1, 3-0 (retired) and Ricardas Berankis beat Dudi Sela, 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-5. Millman advanced with a 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5 victory over American Austin Krajicek and Dzumhur beat American Tim Smyczek, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Sharapova out of Qatar Open Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Qatar Open tournament to be held later this month due to an injury to her left forearm, organizers announced Wednesday. It is the second time the world number six has pulled out of a tournament this season because of the same injury. Earlier this year, Sharapova also had to withdraw from her intended season opener, the Brisbane International. This year's Qatar Open will be played on Feb. 21-27.
