Tue Jun 10 12:03:57 2008

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Bammer drops DFS opener

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Birmingham, England (Sports Network) - Fourth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer was among Tuesday's second-round losers at the $200,000 DFS Classic, a grass-court Wimbledon tuneup.

Bammer was dismissed by British wild card Melanie South in 6-3, 7-5 fashion at Edgbaston Priory Club. Bammer received a bye into the second round at this 56- player event.

Other second-round upsets came when Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn trounced ninth- seeded Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-1, 6-0 and American Bethanie Mattek topped 13th-seeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai 6-1, 6-4.

Two other seeds avoided upsets and reached the third round, as No. 8 Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek leveled Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek 6-2, 6-1 and No. 15 Russian Ekaterina Makarova outlasted German Angelique Kerber 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 7-5.

A trio of seeds saw first-round action on Day 2 here, as No. 11 Aussie Casey Dellacqua downed American Julie Ditty 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, No. 12 Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko blitzed Brit Anne Keothavong 6-3, 6-2 and France's Camille Pin upended No. 16 Russian Anastasia Rodionova 7-5, 7-6 (7-2).

In other first-round play, Poland's Marta Domachowska dropped Estonian qualifier Margit Ruutel 6-4, 6-4 and Aussie Samantha Stosur stifled promising German Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-4.

Additional opening-round wins came for Czech Petra Cetkovska, Hungarian Melinda Czink, Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual, New Zealand's Marina Erakovic and France's Nathalie Dechy.

In some second-round action here on Wednesday, top-seeded Marion Bartoli of France will encounter Cetkovska, while third-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova will meet Dechy.

This week's winner will collect $31,000.