Strasbourg, France – Top seed Sabine Lisicki came up an opening-round loser Monday at the $220,000 Strasbourg International tennis event, a final clay-court French Open tune-up.
French crowd favorite Pauline Parmentier surprised the German Lisicki 6-4, 6-4 at Strasbourg Tennis Club, while eighth-seeded Austrian Tamira Paszek avoided an upset by holding off Italian Alberta Brianti 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.
In other Day-1 play, France's Stephanie Foretz Gacon drubbed Brit Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-0 and Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh overcame Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-1.
A pair of matches were suspended because of rain, as fourth-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues was leading Georgian Anna Tatishvili 7-5, 3-4 and Japan's Ayumi Morita was ahead of sixth-seeded Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 5-1 when play was called. Medina Garrigues is a three-time Strasbourg titlist.
Second seed Francesca Schiavone will play her opening-round match here on Tuesday. The Italian Schiavone was last year's French Open runner-up and the 2010 titlist at Roland Garros.
German Andrea Petkovic, who is not defending her title this year, topped France's Marion Bartoli in last year's Strasbourg finale.
The 2012 champ will collect $37,000.
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