Serena Williams stretched her winning start to the clay court season to 14 matches as she brushed aside Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva 6-2 6-3 in the women's first round.
Williams, who has won successive tournaments in Charleston and Madrid as well as two Fed Cup rubbers since switching from the US hard courts, needed 72 minutes to book her place in round two.
Second seed Maria Sharapova struggled to overcome American world number 36 Christina McHale, who broke the Russian's serve three times but succumbed 7-5 7-5 in a match lasting two hours and 12 minutes.
And fourth seed and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova did not have it any easier as she was also broken three times and forced to fend off a further 12 break points before beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-4.
Venus Williams, handed a wild card for the tournament, joined her sister in the second round with a 6-3 6-4 win over Romania's Simona Halep, and Russia's Nadia Petrova was another first round winner over Andrea Hlavackova.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic needed two hours and 43 minutes to win a marathon tussle with 11th seed Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 6-3, and Sorana Cirstea took almost as long to see off 15th seed Jelena Jankovic 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4).
Other winners on a busy day of action were 14th seed Dominika Cibulkova - who eased past veteran qualifier Mirjana Lucic 6-1 6-2 - Karin Knapp, Petra Cetkovska, Sloane Stevens, Flavia Pennetta, Sara Errani and Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
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