DUBAI: Fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska advanced to the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships Tuesday after defeating Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-1, 6-7 (6), 7-5.

The 22-year-old Radwanska cruised through the first set in 27 minutes, but she needed another two hours to win her opening match in Dubai. After losing the second set on a tiebreaker, Radwanska struggled to regain concentration in the third and had to come back from 5-3 down to win it 7-5.

Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka is the top-seeded player in Dubai. The top-ranked Belarusian will meet Julia Goerges of Germany in her opening match Wednesday.

The field also includes defending champion Caroline Wozniacki and U.S. Open winner Sam Stosur, but Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, French Open winner Li Na and Vera Zvonareva all withdrew because of illness and injury Monday.

Earlier Tuesday, two more players joined the list of withdrawals.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia retired with a hamstring injury while trailing Iveta Benesova 3-1 and Maria Kirilenko withdrew with a neck injury.

Later Tuesday, seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy will play Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic and sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France will meet China’s Shuai Peng in her opening match.

Third-seeded Wozniacki will open the defense of her title Wednesday when she meets Simona Halep of Romania in the second round. Halep advanced Tuesday after defeating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-2.

Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic also advanced Tuesday after ousting Croatia’s Petra Martic 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Safarova will meet U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the second round.

Elsewhere, Nikolay Davydenko hit nine aces and did not face a single break point as he beat Andreas Beck of Germany 6-1, 7-5 Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open 13.

Davydenko, a semifinalist at the ABN Amro World Tennis final in Rotterdam last week, broke Beck’s serve three times in the match.

The Russian next faces fourth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina for a place in the quarterfinals.

In other first-round matches, Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Albano Olivetti, and Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn all advanced in straight sets, while David Goffin of Belgium was up 6-2, 1-0 against Adrian Mannarino when the Frenchman retired. Mahut hit 12 aces in beating Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-4 and will play top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the second round.

Olivetti did not face a break point in his 6-4, 6-3 win over Matthias Bachinger of Germany, but Kunitsyn saved seven of the eight he faced before getting the better of Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut, 6-4, 6-4.