Maria Sharapova, the top seed at the ASB tennis Classic, has progressed to the second round in Auckland.
The Russian former World No.1 posted a straight sets win over Italy's Alberta Brianti, 6-2 6-3, in the last match of the opening day.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic also had a comfortable win in her opening doubles match, pairing up with with Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson to beat the Romanian-Austrian combination of Simona Halep and Tamira Paszek.
Sacha Jones, the New Zealand No.1, lost her singles match against two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian winning 6-4 6-2.
