Former champion Victoria Azarenka has started her campaign at the Western & Southern Open with an emphatic 6-2 6-3 victory over No.15 seed Donna Vekic.

Azarenka needed just over an hour in New York to seal her first WTA victory of 2020.

Before the tour’s shutdown, the two-time Australian Open champion lost her opening match in Acapulco to Tamara Zidansek, and was beaten last week by Venus Williams.

But she kicked off her third tournament of 2020 with a 71-minute win over the world No.24 – her first victory in a completed match over a top 30 player since May, 2019, in Rome.

The tournament lost one of its marquee names when 13th-seeded Maria Sakkari dispatched Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to spoil the 16-year-old American’s Western & Southern debut.

After a run to the Lexington semi-finals last week, Gauff was put under pressure by her Greek opponent, committing 24 unforced errors and hitting only six winners.

Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova has toppled ninth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-5 7-6 (8-6) in another upset.

All players competing this week, as well as in next week’s US Open, are living in a biosecurity bubble, following strict safety protocols onsite and at the official tournament hotel.