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Schiavone dumped out in Stuttgart

Francesca Schiavone slumped to defeat in Stuttgart © Getty Images

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Francesca Schiavone's preparations for the defence of her French Open title were dealt a major blow as she was sent crashing out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

The world No. 4, who missed Italy's crushing Fed Cup defeat to Russia at the weekend in a bid to prepare for the clay court season, was rocked by a 6-1 6-3 defeat to Agnieszka Radwanska in Stuttgart.

Schiavone hit five double faults and was broken on five occasions as she slumped to her sixth defeat in ten matches. It was the Italian's second defeat in a row to Radwanska, who completed a crushing 6-0 6-2 victory in Miami.

The Pole will meet home favourite Kristina Barrois in the next round after the German wildcard beat eighth seed Marion Bartoli 6-4 6-2. But that wasn't the end of the shocks, as another wildcard, Sabine Lisicki, stunned sixth seed Na Li, triumphing 6-4 7-5.

And on top of that, fourth seed Victoria Azarenka's participation in the tournament was ended when she was forced to withdraw from her match with Julia Goerges - despite winning the first set 6-4.

Elsewhere, world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki remains on course for a fifth final in six events after strolling past Zuzana Kucova 6-1 6-2 in 63 minutes. Wozniacki, who is bidding for her fourth title of the year, won every game on her opponent's serve during the first set.

Second seed Vera Zvonareva survived a minor scare as she had to battle from a set down to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in an all-Russian clash in Stuttgart. A single break of serve left the world No. 3 with an uphill battle, but Zvonareva kept her cool to seal a 3-6 6-4 6-2 victory after over two hours on court.

Zvonareva will now meet Sam Stosur after the Australian No. 1 clinched a 6-4 2-6 6-4 victory over Daniela Hantuchova.

At the Grand Prix de SAR, top seed Aravane Rezai was shocked by wildcard Nadia Lalami in the second round, while third seed Lourdes Dominguez Lino fell to Melanie Oudin.

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