Pliskova breezes into Malaysian Open 2nd round

Karolina Pliskova is the defending champion of the Malaysian Open (Aijaz Rahi/AP).

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic made a winning start to her defence of the Malaysian Open title by easing past Aleksandra Krunic 6-2, 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday.

Pliskova’s sister, Kristyna, also won, beating Timea Babos of Hungary 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4.

However, both Japanese seeds departed: No. 5 Kimiko Date-Krumm retired hurt after trailing 5-3 against Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey, and No. 8 Ayumi Morita was knocked out by qualifier Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2.

Other winners included No. 6-seeded Zarina Diyas from Kazakhstan, and No. 7 Donna Vekic of Croatia.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.