Julia Goerges made serene progress to round two of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy, while fellow seed Daria Kasatkina was made to toil against Viktoria Kuzmova.
Fifth seed Goerges was largely untroubled in her 6-2 7-6 (7-5) beating of Maria Sakkari, the German racking up nine aces and facing just two break points.
"I just wanted to focus on my game and be aggressive on my shots," Goerges said.
"I know she's a very good mover and she'll make you see a lot of balls and I just tried to make sure that I was aggressive and taking charge of the game."
Next up is a clash with Roberta Vinci - the 2016 champion having beaten Tereza Martincova 6-2 6-2.
Kasatkina had a more difficult outing, the eighth seed was trailing 5-0 en route to losing the first set before recovering to defeat qualifier Kuzmova 1-6 6-4 6-1.
Dominika Cibulkova had an easier outing in her 7-5 6-2 beating of Sorana Cirstea.
In other matches, former world number two Vera Zvonareva benefitted from Kiki Bertens' retirement, while Elena Rybakina and Irina-Camelia Begu defeated Timea Bacsinszky and Andrea Petkovic respectively in straight sets.
At the Taiwan Open, Sabine Lisicki made an eventful return from a knee injury sustained in November that required surgery.
The German trailed 5-1 in the deciding set and saved two match points before recovering to beat Zhang Yuxuan in three sets.
Top seed Peng Shuai bit the dust 6-4 6-1 to Ana Bogdan, Sam Stosur (3) was defeated by Nao Hibino, but Eugenie Bouchard progressed after opponent Zhu Lin retired in a deciding set.
Johanna Larsson, Magda Linette, Pauline Parmentier and Wang Yafan also made it through to round two.
