Palermo, Italy (Sports Network) - Top-seeded Italian favorite Flavia Pennetta and reigning champion Sara Errani, also of Italy, were among Tuesday's opening-round victors at the Palermo International tennis tournament.
Pennetta pasted Spanish qualifier Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2, 6-3, while a fifth-seeded Errani topped Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva 6-4, 6-4 in a rematch of last year's final, which was also won by the Italian on the red clay at Country Time Club.
Meanwhile, last week's surprise Bastad titlist Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, of Spain, continued her winning ways by upsetting third-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-2 on Day 2 here.
In other action involving seeds, No. 6 Russian Ekaterina Makarova mauled American Jill Craybas 6-3, 6-1 and German Anna-Lena Groenefeld grounded No. 8 Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-1.
Another Italian winner on Tuesday was 2006 Palermo runner-up Tathiana Garbin, who dismissed Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-4, 7-5.
Other first-round winners were Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus, Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives, Austrian Patricia Mayr and Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.
The winner of this $220,000 event will claim $37,000.