Tue Jul 8 12:22:49 2008

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Three seeds bow out in Budapest

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Budapest, Hungary (Sports Network) - Fourth-seeded Czech Iveta Benesova, sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier and eighth-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea were a trio of opening-round losers Tuesday at the $175,000 Gaz de France Grand Prix tennis tournament.

Hungarian crowd favorite Greta Arn erased Benesova 6-4, 6-4, while Croat Karolina Sprem doused Parmentier 7-5, 6-2 and Czech Petra Kvitova dismissed Cirstea in 6-2, 6-4 fashion on the red clay at Romai Tennis Academy. Cirstea was last year's Budapest runner-up to Argentine Gisela Dulko, who is not defending her title this week.

Seventh-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova avoided the upset bug by handling France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-3, 6-2 on Day 2.

The Hungarian faithful were teated to another victory when wild card Katalin Marosi got past Russian Anna Lapushchenkova 6-3, 6-1.

Additional wins came for Slovakians Magdalena Rybarikova and qualifier Zuzana Kucova, Slovenian Andrea Klepac and German Martina Muller.

This week's top seeds are Hungary's own Agnes Szavay and France's Alize Cornet. Szavay will open her stay against Klepac, while Cornet will encounter Rybarikova after enjoying first-round byes.

The 2008 Budapest champion will collect $28,000.