STUTTGART: Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic advanced to the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix with a straight sets victory over Sabine Lisicki of Germany on Wednesday.

Ivanovic, seeded ninth at the tournament, needed just an hour to crush her opponent 6-1, 6-3 and set up a clash with Lisicki’s compatriot Julia Goerges — a 6-1, 7-5 winner over Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

Meanwhile, eight-seeded Sara Errani of Italy advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Estonian Kaia Kanepi where she will face either Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro or fourth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany.

Errani had her first win in five visits to Stuttgart on Tuesday when she recovered from a double break down in the second set to defeat Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4.

Also on Tuesday, defending champion Maria Sharapova survived a first-round scare by defeating Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-2) and next faces fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Latvian qualifier Diana Marcinkevica 6-3, 6-2.

Jelena Jankovic, seeded fifth, saved four match points to come back and claim a 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 win over German lucky loser Mona Barthel.

Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Italian qualifier Gioia Barbieri 6-2, 6-3 and another Russian, Alisa Kleybanova, defeated Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-4.