Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber both made winning starts in the White Group at the WTA Finals.
The in-form Muguruza, among the tournament favourites, battled past Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in their opening round-robin match.
It was a WTA Finals debut for both players, but Muguruza emerged victorious in an hour and 56 minutes, and thereby took revenge for her defeat in this year's French Open quarter-finals.
Following the match, Muguruza appeared more relieved than jubilant, as she said: "It's a very tough match. At Roland Garros, I think she (Safarova) played an amazing match. I think today, I wanted so much to win. I was fighting and I was really concentrating."
Muguruza, a Wimbledon singles finalist in July, had come into Monday's match on a high having risen to world number three by overtaking no less than Maria Sharapova.
Safarova, on the other hand, was yet to win a match since the US Open - having battled illness and an abdominal injury - as Muguruza came out the stronger on court in Singapore, taking the first set 6-3 and hitting four aces on the way.
The Czech had somehow managed to save seven break points, but the two that mattered were lost to Muguruza, the difference in return percentage showing as the first set was wrapped up in around 50 minutes.
Desperate to impress, Safarova broke the Spaniard's serve in the second set opener and was growing in confidence, only for Muguruza to come back level at 3-3 with a break of her own, which was sealed thanks to a good baseline call challenge from the Spaniard.
Muguruza was threatening to run away with it, but Safarova did well to keep pace and force a tie-break.
However, Muguruza had found the extra pace in her shots and kept her nose in front all the way to a 7-4 scoreline, with Safarova's errant forehand into the net ending proceedings.
In the second match of the day in the White Group, Kerber won the battle of the left-handers as she beat world No 5 and 2011 champion Petra Kvitova 6-2 7-6 (7-3).
The pair had met six times previously - with Kvitova holding a 4-2 edge - but Monday was their first meeting of 2015, and Kerber wasted little time in securing an advantage.
Kerber broke her opponent twice in the first set to take the match lead and that woke Kvitova up.
Kvitova had won in three sets in her last two meetings with Kerber and looked like pushing things to another decider as both players traded breaks towards a tie-break, the German failing to serve out at 5-4.
However, the breaker seemed to be as far as Kvitova could go, with Kerber clinching victory by taking it by seven points to three.
"I was trying to move well," Kerber told the crowd. "In the second set, I was break down in the first few games.
"It was very close and I was just trying to go for it. I'm just happy to win in two sets."
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