Vera and Caro win openers, in fine form.

Vera Zvonareva maintained her recent mastery over Jelena Jankovic in the first match of the WTA Championships - Doha 2010 on Tuesday afternoon, beating the former No.1 handily in straight sets, 6-3 6-0.

Zvonareva, the No.2 seed at the $4.55-million season-ending event, had won her last six sets against Jankovic; that became eight in a row with Tuesday's win. Zvonareva actually won eight straight games from 4-3 in the first set; Jankovic lost that opening set on a double fault and the match on a forehand into the net.

Zvonareva had a +13 winners-to-errors differential (28-15); it was a different story for Jankovic, who had a -15 winners-to-errors differential (15-30).

"I'm excited. It's an amazing feeling to win my first match of this year's WTA Championships," Zvonareva said in her on-court interview. "All the players are very tough here and everyone who made it to the final eight deserves to be here. I was just trying to do my best on the court today - it always looks easy from the side, but the first set was really long and we had some great rallies today."

Zvonareva now leads her head-to-head series with Jankovic, 7-6.

In the other opener, Caroline Wozniacki had a just as impressive win over Elena Dementieva, crushing her 6-1 6-1.

Wozniacki, the No.1 seed at the season-ender, lost eight points in her seven service games and broke Dementieva five times en route to the 53-minute win.

"Elena's a great player so to pull this one out was nice," Wozniacki said in her on-court interview after the match. "I'm really happy to get through my first match. I love it here - it's fantastic in Doha, the crowd and the support. It was a big help for me today and I'm looking forward to my next one."

Wozniacki scored her WTA-leading 60th match victory of the season. She also has the most titles on the WTA this year, winning six: Ponte Vedra Beach, Copenhagen, Montréal, New Haven, Tokyo and Beijing. The last four of those are all Premiers; a title here would be her biggest of the year and her career.

Dementieva had pushed Wozniacki to three sets in their two other meetings this year, falling to the Dane in the semis of New Haven, 16 63 76(5), and in the final of Tokyo, 16 62 63. She fell to 3-9 lifetime against No.1s, those wins coming against Martina Hingis (2001 Moscow), Lindsay Davenport (2005 US Open) and Serena Williams earlier this season (2010 Sydney).