**Belarussian Victoria Azarenka enjoyed a superb debut at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha as she thrashed Jelena Jankovic in the opening match.**Azarenka, 20, beat the former world number one 6-2 6-3 in the Maroon Group.
The season finale is split into two group of four, with Caroline Wozniacki and Dinara Safina to play on Wednesday.
The White Group begins later on Tuesday, with Elena Dementieva playing Venus Williams and Serena Williams taking on Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The top two in each group will make the semi-finals, with the champion taking home US$1.55m.
Serena Williams hopes to regain the number one spot from Safina - the American must win one more match than the Russian to do so.
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Twelve months ago Jankovic came into the tournament as the world number one, but a mark of her slump in form is that this time around the Serbian is the lowest ranked player of the eight on show.
Sixth seed Azaranka, in contrast, has made the breakthrough into the top 10 in 2009 and was much the steadier in the opening match.
Jankovic was in desperate form, dropping serve twice as the first set slipped away and, after recovering an early break in the second, handing it straight back with a succession of errors.
Azarenka came through a lengthy game eight on her way to sealing victory in one hour and 22 minutes and taking charge of the Maroon Group.