Former World No.1 Jelena Jankovic made a solid start to her title campaign at the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open in Doha and breezed past wild card entrant Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman 6-1, 6-3 to enter the second round of the WTA premier event.

In another exciting clash, Pattaya Open champion and Slovakian  Daniela Hantuchova scored a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Sixth seed and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka to move ahead in the event.

"Even after the first set went against me I was confident I was playing well and managed to turn that confidence into points," Hantuchova said. "It was really satisfying. Victoria is never easy to play but my game worked for me tonight."

Indian star Sania Mirza also made it to the next round with a  win over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, winning 6-2, 7-5 in 84 minutes of play. Chinese wonderwoman Shuai Peng caused the second upset of the day when she ousted Dubai finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-4 to better her record on the middle-eastern soil.

Other winners of the day were Dominika Cibulkova, Vera Dushevina, Klara Zakopalova, Shahar Peer and Flavia Pennetta, who all registered contrasting wins over their respective opponents to move ahead in the draw.