US Open champion
Kim Clijsters ripped through her opening-round match Wednesday at the WTA stop in Luxembourg -- with injuries to
Lindsay Davenport and
Maria Sharapova now looking all the more like the player who will cross the No. 1 year-end finish line first -- blowing past Klara Koukalova 6-3, 6-0 to advance into the quarterfinals after a first-round bye.
"It's always tough to adjust to the conditions after playing outdoors the whole summer," Clijsters said. "I got used to the court pretty quickly today."
Other seeded winners into the quarters were (5)
Daniela Hantuchova (d. Chakvetadze), and (6)
Francesca Schiavone (d. Razzano who retired with a thigh strain).
Unseeded first-round winners were Czech qualifier
Jarmila Gajdosova (d. Srebotnik), German Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. Daniilidou), Madigascar's Dally Randriantefy (d. (Q) Tu), and Italian
Roberta Vinci (d. (Q) Krajicek).
Scheduled for Thursday in Luxembourg are Dechy vs. Randriantefy, Safina vs. Gajdosova, Peschke vs. Petrova, Vinci vs. Schnyder, and Smashnova vs. Groenefeld.
