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An interesting afternoon's tennis across the WTA Tour saw a largely favourable day for the seeds as 4th seed Francesca Schiavone blanked Russian qualifier Vesna Manasieva 6-0, 6-0 in Paris, while top seed and defending champion Vera Zvonareva enjoyed an easy outing against compatriot Ksenia Pervak in lovely Pattaya City.

To Paris first, for the $700,000 OPEN GDF SUEZ where Schiavone was one of only two seeds in action, the other being Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, seeded 7th. Razzano was sadly the only casualty of the day in either tournament, going down in two close sets to a rejuvenated 31-year old Patty Schnyder, 6-3, 7-6(3). The Swiss veteran has a challenging second round in prospect too when she meets American upstart Melanie Oudin.

Oudin, a quarter-finalist at the US Open last year, carried forward her good form from this weekend's Fed Cup dishing out a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing to Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

An equally easy victor was Czech star Lucie Safarova who coasted past Austria's Tamira Paszek 6-0, 6-3. Safarova though will be up against it when she meets Schiavone in the second round.

Other winners today included Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andrea Petkovic, Tathiana Garbin and qualifier Karolina Sprem. Garbin will meet 8th seed Elena Vesnina in the second round, while Pavlyuchenkova has top seed Elena Dementieva lying in wait.

Over in Thailand at the $220,000 PTT PATTAYA OPEN joining Zvonareva in the second round were 4th seed Yaroslava Shvedova and 8th seed Julia Goerges. All three women posted straight set wins and very barely tested. Zvoanreva beat Pervak 6-3, 6-2 while Shvedova beat Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-2, 6-4. Georges meanwhile beat Greek qualifier Anna Gerasimou 6-4, 6-4.

Joining them in the second round was Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn who blitzed past Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2. Tanasugarn runs into second seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany in the next round, Lisicki won her opening round match against Akgul Amanmuradova yesterday.

Tomorrow promises to be an exciting day in Pattaya with last year's losing finalist Sania Mirza of India opening her campaign against German Tatjana Malek and 41-year old Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm squaring off against Anastasia Rodionova.

Tuesday Scores:

OPEN GDF SUEZ, Paris

Singles - First Round
(4) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (Q) Vesna Manasieva (RUS) 60 60
Patty Schnyder (SUI) d. (7) Virginie Razzano (FRA) 63 76(3)
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Iveta Benesova (CZE) 61 60
Lucie Safarova (CZE) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 60 63
Andrea Petkovic (GER) d. Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 75 62
Melanie Oudin (USA) d. Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 63 60
Tathiana Garbin (ITA) d. (Q) Ioana Raluca Olaru (ROU) 36 62 64
(Q) Karolina Sprem (CRO) d. Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 75 61

PTT PATTAYA OPEN, Pattaya City

Singles - First Round
(1) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. Ksenia Pervak (RUS) 63 62
(4) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) d. Ayumi Morita (JPN) 62 64
(8) Julia Goerges (GER) d. (Q) Anna Gerasimou (GRE) 64 64
Alberta Brianti (ITA) d. (Q) Sacha Jones (NZL) 64 46 61
Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) d. Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) 61 62
Chang Kai-Chen (TPE) d. (WC) Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA) 46 63 63
Chan Yung-Jan (TPE) d. (Q) Zhou Yi-Miao (CHN) 62 63
Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS) d. (Q) Nudnida Luangnam (THA) 67(4) 61 76(3)
Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) d. (WC) Suchanan Viratprasert (THA) 61 75

File Photograph Copyright: Glenn Thomas