WTA Elite Trophy: Johanna Konta off to winning start; Petra Kvitova beats Roberta Vinci

Zhuhai: Top-seeded Johanna Konta opened her Elite Trophy campaign by beating 2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday. Konta broke Stosur’s serve four times and dropped one service game. “Against a player like Sam, who plays such a big ball and has such a big game, I really had to do my best to stay there for every single point and take my chances whenever they came,” said Konta, who was playing her first match since withdrawing from the Hong Kong Open last month with an abdominal strain. [caption id=“attachment_3085496” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Johanna Konta. AP[/caption] The tournament in Zhuhai features the leading players on the women’s tour who didn’t qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore last week. Carla Suarez Navarro withdrew because of a right wrist injury and was replaced by Timea Babos, who lost 6-4, 6-2 to Timea Bacsinszky in the first match on Day 2. Bacsinszky rebounded from an opening loss to Chinese wild-card entry Zhang Shuai. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 in a night match.