World number one Simona Halep swatted aside American Nicole Gibbs while Maria Sharapova was flawless in her straight sets victory over Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu in the opening round of the Shenzhen Open today.Halep, who sealed a 6-4, 6-1 victory was at her aggressive best to set up a second-round clash with China's Duan Yingying who defeated Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 7-5.Five-times major winner Sharapova hit 18 winners and needed an hour and 22 minutes to dispatch the seasoned Buzarnescu 6-3, 6-0 for a winning start to the year.The Russian next faces 2017 runner-up Alison Riske, who upset China's fifth seed Wang Qiang yesterday.Unseeded Danka Kovinic ranked 123 in the world, stunned Greek seventh-seeded Maria Sakkari 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.Local hope Zhang Shuai powered past Russia's Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-4 and was joined in the next round by Timea Babos who beat China's Wang Xiyu 6-1, 6-1.