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Updated at 7:55 p.m., Monday, July 28, 2008

Tennis: Bartoli overcomes sore leg, wins Rogers Cup opener

Associated Press

MONTREAL — Tamira Paszek of Austria beat 14th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-1 tonight in a match interrupted four times by rain at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament.

The match was tied 1-1 in the third set when the fourth and longest delay halted play for 90 minutes. When they resumed, the 17-year-old Paszek quickly put away a match that lasted nearly seven hours.

Two earlier delays had lasted more than an hour while another was only 23 minutes as the players left the court, returned, warmed up and resumed play only to repeat the process four times.

Paszek, ranked 94th in the world, avenged a first-round loss to Schiavone at last year's Rogers Cup in Toronto. Schiavone had beaten the Austrian in three sets in the first round at Wimbledon in June, taking the third set 10-8.

Stephanie Dubois of Quebec shrugged off a four-hour wait and an 11 p.m. starting time to down Olga Govortsova. Dubois led 6-1, 4-2 and was dominating the match when Govortsova retired due to an apparent leg injury.

The final scheduled match of the night Quebec's Marie-Eve Pelletier and Nadia Petrova was postponed until Tuesday.

A case of the shakes and an upset stomach couldn't stop Marion Bartoli of France from advancing.

The 10th-seeded Bartoli had on-court treatment and a short restroom break during the second set as she battled through a stomach virus to down qualifier Melanie South 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0 in the first round match.

"I was not feeling good at all," Bartoli said. "My legs were shaking. My arms were shaking by themselves. I was really dizzy. I got cold.

"The doctor gave me some tablets to take. They helped a lot in the third set but it took a while for me to feel a little better. But I needed to come up with the win, so whatever it took, I had to hang in tough."

Bartoli was told by a physiotherapist that 15-to-20 players have come down with the virus.

"They told us to wash even more our hands and not touch the same food as the others, or drink the same water — to be really careful because there's a virus going on," she said.

Patty Schnyder led 7-6 (6), 3-2 when her opponent, Yuan Meng of China, pulled out with a thigh injury.

That put the ninth seed from Switzerland into a second-round meeting with Monica Niculescu, the Romanian who ousted American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-2.

Qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito, the 15-year-old from Portugal who reached the round of 16 two weeks ago at Stanford, continued to impress with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Vania King.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia rolled past Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1 and will face another Russian, fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, in the second round.

Anastasia Rodionova, still another of the 12 Russians in the 56-woman draw, downed Cara Black of Zimbabwe 6-2, 6-2 and Virginie Razzano ousted fellow Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai 6-1, 6-2.

The top eight seeds have a bye to the second round.

The event could be a battle for the world No. 1 ranking between current leader Ana Ivanovic, her Serbian compatriot Jelena Jankovic and No. 3 Maria Sharapova of Russia, all of whom will begin play later in the week.

The three are only 202 points apart, with 430 points up for grabs for the Rogers Cup winner.