Clijsters chasing match practice in Brisbane

BRISBANE: Kim Clijsters said she was looking forward to some much needed match practice after powering past Romania's Simona Halep in the first round of the Brisbane International on Sunday.

Clijsters, who won the season-opening Brisbane tournament in 2010 in a classic final against Justine Henin, blasted through the first set then held off Halep in the second to win 6-1, 6-4.

The 28-year-old Belgian will be trying to defend her Australian Open crown later this month but concedes to being a bit rusty after missing the last seven months of 2011 with injury problems.

Clijsters declared herself delighted with how she played against Halep, the world No.47, who reached the Australian Open third round last year.

Earlier former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was handed an easy passage into the second round when Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan withdrew with a headache with the score at 4-4 in the first set.

Schiavone had struggled at the start of the match and dropped two early service games, but she was beginning to hit her stride when Pervak decided she could no longer continue.

The Italian said she would like to have had a longer hit out after not playing for several months, saying she had just started to find her form when Pervak pulled out.

In other matches Iveta Benesova downed fellow Czech Lucie Safarova 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 while Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski saw off local wildcard Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 6-2. (AFP)