World number one Dinara Safina and fifth seed Ana Ivanovic moved into the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The top-seeded Safina had to decide the first set against Virginie Razzano in a tiebreak, but took the second set straightforwardly to win 7-6(1) 6-1.

Ana Ivanovic also progressed in straight sets, taking out home favorite Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-4. The Serb will next face tenth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

Two seeds were upset today in Rome: No.11 Marion Bartoli fell to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1 7-5, while No.13 Alize Cornet lost to Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 6-1.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, champion last weekend in Stuttgart, is through, as well as Jelena Jankovic, Flavia Pennetta, Caroline Wozniacki, Kaia Kanepi, Nadia Petrova, and Zheng Jie. And please note: Anna Chakvetadze has also advanced. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Jelena Jankovic, who won the Internazionali BNL d’Italia title in 2007 and 2008, defeated Gisela Dulko 6-3 7-6(6) in the second round.

Jankovic could have advanced much more quickly, but she let the Argentinean world No.39 come back in the second set. Jankovic even put herself in a position of saving four set points in the tenth game before leveling at 5-5. Not only did the defending champion waste the early lead, but at 5-5 rain delay set in and the match was prolonged even more. When play resumed, Jankovic and Dulko held their serves, and the third seed finished the match in the tiebreak. Jankovic was on a good way to waste her chances again, though, as she converted only her fifth match point.

The fourth-ranked Serb will next take on Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, who knocked out last year’s runner-up Alize Cornet 6-4 6-1. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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World No.4 Jelena Jankovic admitted a month and a half ago that her disappointing tennis results had a lot to do with her worrying about her mother Snezana's health. Now, the situation is much better and Jankovic is ready to take on the challenge of winning the third Rome title in a row.

Things are going much better. My mother was not feeling well, and it was very hard for me to compete for the last few months because I'm very emotional and very sensitive person. The most important thing is the health, of myself and the closest ones in my family. In bad moments I don't really think about tennis, I don't think about the game. I just hope and pray everything will be okay with my mother and she will be healthy.

Jankovic is content with her claycourt performance so far this year:

I won the tournament in Marbella, and then I won nine matches in a row and then lost just two days ago against Pennetta in a tough match. I'm doing much, much better and I'm improving each day and playing better tennis, and that is something that I'm really happy about.

I'm really happy to hear that things are moving in the favorable direction. Many of us were waiting for the news about Snezana's health. (source: Earth Times, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Maria Sharapova is about to skip two more tournaments, failing to recover from the infamous shoulder injury.

The WTA said in a statement that the Russian has pulled out from next month’s clay-court tournaments Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Sharapova hasn’t played a singles match since last August, while she made a brief return to competitive tennis at Indian Wells last month, playing doubles.

I have to say I kind of expected it. All her statements about the comeback have been somewhat vague. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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The Women's Tennis Association has agreed to bring back byes to certain tournaments in 2009 in order to give players more time to rest between certain high-intensity events.

Rome is a 56-draw tournament followed by Madrid which is a 64-draw tournament. Similarly in the fall, Tokyo is a 56-draw tournament followed by Beijing. Several players were concerned there was too many matches in too few days.

The WTA responded by reintroducing byes for semifinalists in Rome and Tokyo, so that they can play one match less and have more time to rest. (source: Reuters)

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