Birmingham, England (Sports Network) - Ninth-seeded Marina Erakovic and
American qualifier Melanie Oudin were among Tuesday's first-round winners
at a Wimbledon tuneup event in Birmingham.
New Zealand's Erakovic was whipping Ayumi Morita 5-0 in the opening set when
the Japanese retired, while an unseeded Oudin came back to upset 10th-seeded
Romania Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory
Club.
Three other seeds were ousted, as Britain's Tara Moore trounced No. 11 Czech
Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2, Brit Anne Keothavong upended No. 12 Austrian Tamira
Paszek 6-2, 7-5, and France's Stephanie Foretz Gacon took out No. 16 Greek
Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 6-2.
Several other women notched opening-round wins Tuesday, including Britain's
Heather Watson and Laura Robson and American Irina Falconi, who whipped
Romanian Alexandra Cadantu 6-2, 6-0.
Rain washed out all the scheduled play here on Monday and forced the
suspension or postponement of some more action on Tuesday.
German Sabine Lisicki topped Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, seeded second and this
week, respectively, in last year's Birmingham finale. Both players will see
action on Wednesday, as will top seed Francesca Schiavone.
The winner of the $220,000 Aegon Classic will collect $37,000.
The Sports Network