Azarenka finds feet on clay

Victoria Azarenka swept through to the second round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella.

In-form Belarussian cruises through opener

Top seed and last week's Sony Ericsson champion Victoria Azarenka made a successful switch to clay as she swept through her opening assignment at the Andalucia Tennis Experience tournament in Marbella. Azarenka needed 74 minutes to overwhelm Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2 6-3. There was better news for the hosts, though, when Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-0 6-2. In second-round action, Dinara Safina continued to show hints of a revival with a 6-3 6-4 triumph over fifth seed Tsvetana Pironkova, while second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was a 6-7 (2/7) 6-1 6-2 winner over Hungary's Agnes Szavay. Sixth seed Klara Zakopalova was stretched to a final-set tie-break before beating Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-6 (7/3) 1-6 7-6 (7/0), while Italy's Sara Errani saw off Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-1 6-2.