Mon Apr 7 15:24:55 2008

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Bammer advances at Bausch & Lomb

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Amelia Island, FL (Sports Network) - Ninth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer was among Monday's first-round winners at the $600,000 Bausch & Lomb Championships.

The lefthanded Bammer handled Belarusian wild card Anna Orlik 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) at Amelia Island Plantation.

Thirteenth-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano routed Ukrainian qualifier Yuliana Fedak 6-2, 6-1, while 15th-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues moved on with a 6-4, 6-3 decision against Argentine Maria Emilia Salerni and veteran American Jill Craybas snuck past Uzbekistanian Akgul Amanmuradova 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-4).

American Meghann Shaughnessy was knocked out by Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-2, 6-2 on Day 1 here.

Additional opening-round wins came for Czechs Lucie Safarova and qualifier Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Hungarian qualifier Melinda Czink, Russian Ekaterina Makarova, Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita and Belarusian Olga Govortsova.

This week's top-eight seeds, including top-seeded Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova, received byes into the second round. Sharapova will open her stay here against Zahlavova Strycova.

Some other top names on hand this week are Russian Anna Chakvetadze, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and American favorite Lindsay Davenport, who captured this tournament in 1997, 2004 and 2005.

France's Tatiana Golovin defeated 2006 titlist Nadia Petrova of Russia in last year's Amelia Island finale, but neither woman is playing here this year.

The 2008 Bausch & Lomb champion will pocket $95,500.