MUNICH (Germany), Oct 30: World number one Jennifer Capriati was made to work hard by Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva before sealing a 2-6 6-3 6-3 victory in her opening match at the WTA Championships on Tuesday.

Maleeva, who has now disappeared in the first round all three times she has featured in the year-end event for the world’s top 16 players, played extremely well in the first set, winning the last four games to wrap it up in just 27 minutes.

But Capriati, aware an early exit from the $3 million Munich tournament might prevent her finishing the year in top spot, woke up and fought back in the second.

She was broken as she served for the set, leading 5-2, but underlined her determination by capturing her opponent’s serve in the next game to force a third set.

The decisive set was a close affair until Capriati managed the telling break to move 4-2 up.

After wasting a match point by netting a backhand, the Australian and French Open champion gained another with a service winner and sealed victory after one hour 29 minutes by hitting a powerful cross-court backhand.

The 25-year-old American goes on to meet Sandrine Testud, who staged a remarkable comeback to move past Amelie Mauresmo 5-7 7-5 6-1 in the battle of Frenchwomen.

Testud survived a match point at 4-5 down in the second set before moving on top of a tiring Mauresmo in the last set.

Mauresmo, who alternated brilliant winners and clumsy unforced errors throughout, was often let down by her usually devastating serve. She had saved two match points in the final game when she bowed out with a double fault.

Capriati is ideally placed to end her fairytale year ranked number one but she faces a challenge from fellow American Lindsay Davenport, who plays South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer in her first match here on Wednesday.

Former number one Davenport has moved into second in the rankings just 61 points back after winning three tournaments in a row and still stands a chance of knocking Capriati off the top.

Paris Masters Series results:

(prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: Andreas Vinciguerra (Sweden) beat 12-Goran Ivanisevic (Croatia) 6-4 3-6 7-6 (8-6); Nicolas Lapentti (Equador) beat 2-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 4-6 6-4 6-4; 3-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Albert Portas (Spain) 6-3 6-4

First round: Julien Boutter (France) beat Andrei Pavel (Romania) 6-3 3-1, Pavel retired injured; Sjeng Schalken (Netherlands) beat Federico Luzzi (Italy) 6-4 6-2; Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) beat Carlos Moya (Spain) 7-5 6-1; Albert Costa (Spain) beat Michael Llodra (France) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1; Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) beat Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-2 7-6 (7-4)—Reuters