Gisela Dulko loses to Cibulkova in Rome

Gisela Dulko loses to Cibulkova in Rome

It was a rainy day in Rome on Tuesday, and as such only four matches were completed, with over 15 matches being suspended or postponed to Wednesday's schedule. Among the players who made it through their first round matches were teenaged stars Victoria Azarenka and Dominika Cibulkova.

Cibulkova, who recently cracked the Top 30, beat former Top 30 player Gisela Dulko in much tighter fashion, 76(1) 64. Dulko, who recently won her third career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title at the Tier IV event in Fès, Morocco, was up 5-3 in the first set before the Slovak youngster rallied her way back into it, cruising through the tie-break then hanging on for a competitive second set win. She is now 2-0 lifetime against the Argentine No.1, having beaten her at Prague just over a year ago.


One day after breaking into the Top 20 for the first time in her career, Azarenka got the better of a player that only recently dropped out of the Top 20, beating Sybille Bammer comprehensively, 61 63. World No.19 Azarenka used her deep, penetrating groundstrokes to overpower No.26-ranked Bammer, even fending off a 3-0 second set deficit with six straight games of her own to clinch the victory in an hour and 23 minutes. Azarenka is a wildcard at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia; Bammer was the No.19 seed.

Rounding out Tuesday's winners were Tsvetana Pironkova and Roberta Vinci. Pironkova beat fellow qualifier Klara Zakopalova, 64 62; wildcard Vinci was a 64 46 60 winner over another qualifier, Kaia Kanepi.

The last six first round matches plus all 16 second round matches - including those of the tournament's four highest seeds, Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic, are on the Wednesday schedule.

Article from www.wtatour.com

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini