World No.7 Vera Zvonareva remained upbeat despite kicking off her Australian Open preparation with an error-strewn straight sets victory over China's Zheng Jie at the JB Group Classic in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The match at Victoria Park which opened the annual exhibition tournament contained 13 breaks of serve, 27 unforced errors and 11 double faults as Zvonareva came through 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes.
Zheng served for the first set at 5-4 but Zvonareva prevailed in the tie-breaker following a set which contained eight service breaks.
Zvonareva again trailed in the second but reeled off three straight games after losing her opening service game to take a 3-2 lead and, after the players traded breaks, the Russian crucially converted the 13th as Zheng plunged a backhand into the net to end the contest on a fitting note with an unforced error with the entire court at her disposal.
"I knew it wasn't gong to be the best match for the both of us as it's the first match of the season so it is very difficult," said Fed Cup winner Zvonareva.
"There were a lot of unforced errors from both players and also some great shots, it was good that I came up with some great shots when I needed to and that's what counts."
Last year the 24-year-old Russian matched world No.1 Jelena Jankovic with 65 match wins while picking up triumphs in Guangzhou and Prague, and after picking up a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, finished runner-up to Venus Williams at the season-ending Tour Championship.
"There is still room for improvement and I am not at my best, but it is only the first match of the year and we will see what happens," said Zvonareva, who suffered a first-round exit in Melbourne 12 months ago.
"I have improved certain areas but I have not been able to put them all together yet, my game is up and down, I have good points then bad points. But I can see that a few things I worked on in the off-season worked, not all the time, but a couple of times and that counts."
"I didn't have to change a lot during the off-season, I just had to work on every shot and improve it a little bit and I can see that."
Anna Chakvetaze's 6-4 6-4 win over India's Sania Mirza coupled with Zvonareva's win eliminated Team Asia Pacific from the revamped Fed Ex Cup style team competition, meaning Team Russia will face either Team Europe or Team Americas in the final later in the week.
World No.18 Chakvetaze, 21, broke Mirza in the opening service game with a punishing string of forehand winners and, despite a revival from the 22-year-old Indian No.1, the Russian prevailed in just over half an hour.
In the second set, Chakvetaze broke in the ninth service game to take a 5-4 lead before serving out the match to claim a deserved victory after at times proving simply too good for Mirza who is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2008.
Meanwhile, Team Europe took the initiative in its tie with Team Americas as Jankovic teamed up with Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito to beat Wimbledon champion Williams and US Open junior champion Coco Vandeweghe 6-4 7-5.
On Thursday Williams must beat Jankovic to keep the Americas in with a chance of making the final before Argentina's Gisela Dulko faces Hungary's Agnes Szavay.