KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP)—Sorana Cirstea of Romania defeated wild-card Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 7-5, 7-6 (9) first round victory Tuesday at the Sony Ericsson Open and earned a second-round match with Venus Williams.
The 40th-ranked Cirstea has never played either Williams sister.
Cirstea staved off six set points of Larcher de Brito's to win the match.
Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic beat Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-4, 6-4 to set up a second-round match against reigning U.S. Open champion and third-seeded Kim Clijsters.
Other first round winners included: Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, Gisela Dulko of Argentina, Shuai Peng of China, and Alicia Molik of Australia.