After reaching the semi-finals 12 months ago, Caroline Garcia made an impressive start to the Dubai Tennis Championships on Sunday with victory over Johanna Larsson.

Last year the Frenchwoman beat Carla Suarez Navarro and Andrea Petkovic on her way to the last four but failed to reach the final as she fell to defeat against Barbora Strycova.

Garcia - who is seeded 15th this year - made short work of her opening round of the 2017 event as Larsson was brushed aside 6-3 6-3 in 67 minutes.

She could meet Olympic champion Monica Puig next, with former world number one Angelique Kerber a potential third-round opponent.

Kerber will need to get past Mona Barthel, though, after the German caused an upset with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Jelena Jankovic - a player ranked 62 places above her.

Like Garcia, it was comfortable for fellow seed Samantha Stosur but Roberta Vinci and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova became the first to fall, losing to Kristyna Pliskova and Ons Jabeur respectively.

Sunday also saw victories for Naomi Osaka, Anastasija Sevastova and Ekaterina Makarova, while Wang Qiang will meet Jabeur, having beaten Jelena Ostapenko.

China's Zheng Saisai is also through to round two, along with Viktorija Golubic and Laura Siegemund.