WTA Toronto: Azarenka beats Pavlyuchenkova to reach second round

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 12 seed, defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Toronto Masters at the Aviva Centre on Tuesday.

Azarenka, ranked No 19, will next meet Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen, who beat American Sloane Stephens in another first-round clash.

This was Azarenka’s 156th win in WTA 1000 events on hardcourts, which is just one shy of the all-time record held by Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, who has 157 hardcourt wins in WTA 1000 events since the format was introduced in 2009.

This was also Azarenka’s 150th straight-sets win in WTA 1000 events (excluding retirements), which is the highest for any player since the format’s introduction in 2009.

Toronto WTA 1000, other first-round results (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Greet Minnen vs. Sloane Stephens
• Cristina Bucsa vs. Yue Yuan
• Bernarda Pera vs. Katie Boulter
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Caroline Dolehide vs. Amanda Anisimova
• Paula Badosa vs. Clara Tauson
• Erika Andreeva vs. Marina Stakusic
• Magda Linette vs. Rebecca Marino
• Anna Blinkova vs. Peyton Stearns
• Shuai Zhang vs. Leylah Fernandez
• Ashlyn Krueger vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto
• Elise Mertens vs. Katie Volynets
• Ons Jabeur vs. Naomi Osaka
• Harriet Dart vs. Diana Shnaider
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Louisa Chirico vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Dayana Yastremska vs. Taylor Townsend
• Nadia Podoroska vs. Karolina Pliskova: tuesday
• Yafan Wang (Q) beat Sofia Kenin: 7-5, 7-6 (3)
• Elina Svitolina beat Shelby Rogers: 6-0, 6-2
• Moyuka Uchijima (Q) beat Viktoriya Tomova: 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Magdalena Frech beat Anastasia Potapova: 4-6, 6-3, 6-0
• Marta Kostyuk (11) beat Tatjana Maria: 6-0, 6-2