Top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France squandered her chances and was upset in her second round match at the Italian Open clay-court tennis tournament in Rome.
Mauresmo wasted two match points on her way to a three-set loss to Australian Samantha Stosur, 7-5, 6-7, 7-6. The French player previously held a 5-0 record against Stosur. Stosur next takes on Switzerland's Patty Schnyder, a straight-sets winner over American Meilen Tu (6-4, 6-0).
Meanwhile, world number-three player Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeated Italian Mara Santangelo in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. The Russian plays Ukraine's Yuliana Fedak next. Fedak ousted French player Natahlie Dechy (1-6, 6-2, 6-2).
Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia scored a straight-sets win over Tamira Paszek of Austria (6-3, 6-4). Israel's Shahar Peer reached the third round with a win over Ai Sugiyama of Japan (6-0, 6-2). Peer faces American Serena Williams next.
Sixth seed Dinara Safina, seventh seeded Anna Chakvetadze, and 10th seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia all advanced. Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Nathalie Vierin of Italy also made the third round.
The clay-court tournament is one of the final warm-ups for the French Open, which starts May 27 in Paris.
