Lisicki bows out in France
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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.
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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.
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The 2012 champ will collect $37,000.