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The Sydney International has already claimed one big casualty and an out-of-sorts Sam Stosur will be desperate to avoid becoming another when her campaign begins today.

A handful of women's matches on Sunday's opening day featured an early exit by Czech fifth seed Petra Kvitova, thumped 6-1 6-1 by Slovakian world No.15 Dominika Cibulkova.

Former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki had no such problems in hot conditions at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre, her first win of the year a 6-1 6-2 triumph over Poland's Urszula Radwanska.

Kvitova was puzzled by a performance that followed a second round loss at the Brisbane International and left her Australian Open hopes seeming dim.

"I played really badly and I wish I knew what I could say but I don't know," said Kvitova, a semi-finalist at last year's Australian Open.

"I'm not feeling very well right now in my confidence but I'm always looking forward to playing grand slams and I hope everything will be better there than here."

Stosur's Australian summer was left looking similarly gloomy after a shock 7-6 7-5 first-round loss to Sweden's world No.41 Sofia Arvidsson in Brisbane.

The 28 year old, who is recovering from foot surgery, has not beaten a top-50 player on home soil since she won the US Open in 2011.

Sixth seed Stosur will have to defy that trend when she takes on China's world No.26 Jie Zheng on Monday afternoon but she may take some comfort from the performance of Wozniacki, who rebounded from her own surprise first-round loss in Brisbane with a dominant display.

With boyfriend and world golf No.1 Rory McIlroy watching from the stands, Wozniacki needed just 26 minutes to take the first set and was largely untroubled in the second against her good friend and sometimes practice partner.

The Dane was world No.1 last summer but has slipped to No.10 after a season in which she had first-round exits at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Still, Wozniacki holds hope of regaining the world No.1 ranking with a strong year.

"Within myself, I believe I can get back there," Wozniacki said.

Olivia Rogowska was the only Australian involved in the main draw on Sunday and she battled hard early but was outclassed in a 7-5 6-2 loss to Russian Maria Kirilenko.

Other women's seeds in action on Monday include Italian Sara Errani, China's Li Na and Russian Nadia Petrova while Australians Matthew Ebden and James Duckworth will feature in men's matches.

Casey Dellacqua will face Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm, who successfully negotiated qualifying on Sunday.

Article source: http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8589397