Auckland - Olympic champion Elena Dementieva had to fight to stop a potential spoiler, erasing an early 5-1 lead in favour of Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan Chan to post a 7-5, 6-3 victory on Tuesday at the ASB Classic.

Dementieva called her great escape "a tough match."

"She was on fire at the beginning and put a lot of pressure on me. It took me a while to get into the match," she said of her opponent.

The Russian world number four was joined as a straight-sets winner by second seed Caroline Wozniacki as the Dane crushed Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-0.

Two more seeded players advanced to the second round as did New Zealand's Marina Erakovic, who won her opener over Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 7-5, 6-4 to next face Dementieva.

Seventh seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova put out German Kristina Barrois 6-3, 6-1 while Spanish number eight Carla Suarez Navarro stopped French veteran Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-0. (dpa)