Fifth seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has been in impressive form since the second half of the 2009 season. Her back-to-back victories over Venus Williams were considered by many as the high point of her career. In Ponte Vedra Beach, the Russian opened her title bid with a hard-fought 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 win over compatriot Ekaterina Makarova in a three hour tussle to move ahead.

She was later joined by Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, who breezed past American Sloane Stephens in almost 90 minutes of play. Wozniak had a fantastic run here last year to the finals where she lost to near-namesake Caroline Wozniacki.

"It was a tough match today," Wozniak said. "She had a big forehand and we had a lot of long rallies, I just tried to keep the pressure on and move her around, and I was able to win in the end so I'm pretty happy."

No.3 seed Dominika Cibulkova too had an easy entry into the next round when she crushed Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-1, 6-4 to keep her hopes of a maiden title alive.

In the day's other first round matches, Swede Sofia Arvidsson and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva registered comfortable wins over their respective opponents to move ahead in the draw.

The day also saw the completion of the final qualifying matches with Bethanie Mattek Sands, Sesil Karatantcheva, Sophie Ferguson and Anna Tatishvili, all emerging victorious to secure their berths in the main draw of the event.