Estoril, Portugal, 26 April 2011 | AAP

Australian Casey Dellacqua kicked off the Estoril Open with a straight sets victory over China’s Zhang Shuai on Monday.

Playing her first match since Wimbledon after a long injury layoff, Dellacqua advanced to the second round of the joint ATP-WTA tour event with the 6-2 6-1 victory.

Fellow Australian Anastasia Rodionova did not fare as well, losing 6-1 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to unseeded Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.

Russian top seed Alisa Kleybanova earned a 6-2 6-2 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus to also reach the second round of the claycourt tournament while two more seeds were eliminated.

Romanian Monica Niculescu beat fifth seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4 5-7 6-3 as the American tested a recent hip injury while 2006 winner Zheng Jie of China crashed 6-4 6-2 to Italy’s Romina Oprandi.

On the men’s side, South African seventh seed Kevin Anderson recovered to defeat Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker 5-7 6-3 6-2 while Romania’s Victor Hanescu beat Portugal’s Rui Machado 6-3 6-3.

Jeremy Chardy won an all-French battle over Adrian Mannarino 6-4 6-3.