体坛英语新闻：Ivanovic, Cornet, Halep win first matches at women's tennis Tournament of Champions

SOFIA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, Alize Cornet of France and Simona Halep of Romania won the first matches of the women's tennis Garanti Koza Tournament of Champions here on Tuesday evening.

In the "Sredets" group at the beginning round, where the players face each other, Ivanovic smashed the local star Tsvetana Pironkova with 6-0, 6-2.

"It's wonderful to start the tournament with a win but hey, don't forget that I have other two tough matches in my group," former world No. 1 said afterwards, adding that she hopes to advance to the semifinals.

In the other, "Serdika" group, Cornet was leading a 5-0 in the first set against Maria Kirilenko, when the Russian called medical timeout and decided to step out of the tournament, while the number one seeded Halep won 6-3, 6-3 against Anastasiya Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

"I didn't have problems before the match against Cornet, but I twisted my knee and the pain was terrible," Kirilenko said. Elina Svitolina of Ukraine will replace her at the tournament.

In the three matches on Wednesday, Russian Elena Vesnina will face Samantha Stosur of Australia in the "Sredets" group, while Halep and Svitolina will meet Cornet and Pavlyuchenkova respectively in the "Serdika" group.

The first two from each group will play in the semifinals on Saturday and the winners will play Sunday's final.

The tournament meets six players who have captured at least one International Series tournament title during the year, and who are not participating in singles at the Women's Tennis Association ( WTA) Championships in Istanbul, along with two wildcards.