Tue May 13 16:09:26 2008

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Bammer loses in rainy Rome

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Rome, Italy (Sports Network) - Austrian lefthander Sybille Bammer was an upset victim on a rainy Tuesday at the $1.34 million Italian Open, a clay- court French Open tune-up.

The 19th-seeded Bammer was ousted by rising Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, a wild card this week, 6-1, 6-3 at Foro Italico.

In other first-round action, Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova handled Argentine Gisela Dulko 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova pasted Czech qualifier Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-2 and Italian wild card Roberta Vinci outlasted Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. Pironkova is rewarded with a second-rounder against top-seeded Australian and French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, while Cibulkova will take on Aussie Open champ Maria Sharapova, this week's second seed.

Three second-round matches and six first-rounders were either postponed or suspended here on Tuesday because of rain. Fifth-seeded American Serena Williams was scheduled to meet Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko and seventh-seeded Venus Williams was slated to face Aussie Samantha Stosur in the second round, but both bouts were pushed back to Wednesday. The Wimbledon champion Venus returns to action this week after taking a medical leave of absence over the last month.

A second-rounder between eighth-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli of France was also wiped out on Day 2 here.

In other opening-round play, Russian lucky-loser Ekaterina Makarova was leading 13th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 6-4, 1-2 and Maria Kirilenko was up on 18th-seeded fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 3-6, 7-5, 2-1 when play was called for the day.

This year's titlist will collect $196,900. Serbian Jelena Jankovic defeated Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in last year's Rome finale.