MALLORCA, Spain (AP) The novelty of a new tournament drove former top-10 player Daniela Hantuchova to begin her 18th grass-court season on tour at the Mallorca Open, where she won her opening match on Monday.
Hantuchova has usually spent this week at the Birmingham Classic, where she won as recently as 2013. But the Slovak accepted a wild-card entry into the new Mallorca event, and used it to beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-3.
Also, Caroline Garcia of France, the only seeded player in action, defeated Carina Witthoeft of Germany 7-5, 6-4.
Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia were also first-round winners in a tournament in which the top-seeded player was French Open champion Garbine Muguruza.