Rome, Italy (Sports Network) - Last week's Madrid champion Serena
Williams, reigning Rome titlist Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova
and former world No. 1 Venus Williams were a quartet of winners Tuesday at
the $2.168 million Italian Open tennis event, a clay-court French Open
tune-up.
The ninth-seeded former top-ranked Serena blew past Kazakhstan's Galina
Voskoboeva 6-2, 6-3 in an opening-round affair.
The 2002 Rome champion Serena, now 14-0 on clay this year, upset current world
No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in last week's finale in Madrid.
Serena's second-round opponent on Wednesday will be former top-10 Russian
Nadia Petrova.
Meanwhile, the second-seeded former No. 1 Sharapova handled rising American
teenager Christina McHale 7-5, 7-5, while a fourth-seeded Kvitova overcame
eight double faults to get past capable Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5,
6-4 in second-round action on a sun-filled day at Foro Italico.
Sharapova titled on red clay in Stuttgart last month.
The Aussie Open and Wimbledon runner-up Sharapova beat U.S. Open winner
Samantha Stosur in last year's Rome finale.
The wild card Venus waltzed past quality Romanian Simona Halep 6-3, 6-4 in
opening-round action. Venus was the Rome champion in 1999 and runner-up in
1998.
Up next for the seven-time Grand Slam champ will be Russian Ekaterina Makarova
on Wednesday.
In first-round play involving seeds on Day 2, New Zealand's Marina Erakovic
erased No. 11 German Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3; No. 14 Slovak
Dominika Cibulkova whipped Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic 6-1, 6-2;
Romanian Sorana Cirstea knocked out No. 15 Serb Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 4-6, 7-6
(7-4); and Italian Flavia Pennetta dismissed No. 16 Russian Maria Kirilenko
6-1, 7-6 (7-2). The former world No. 1 Jankovic was the back-to-back Rome
titlist in 2007 and 2008 and runner-up in 2010.
Additional opening-round wins came for the aforementioned Petrova, Italian
favorites Sara Errani and wild card Karin Knapp, Czech Petra Cetkovska,
Spanish qualifier Silvia Soler-Espinosa, and American Sloane Stephens, who
outlasted fellow qualifier and former top-10 Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-2,
2-6, 6-4.
Also here on Wednesday, a top-seeded Azarenka will play her second-rounder
against Israeli Shahar Peer.
The 2012 Rome titlist will collect $385,000.
The Sports Network