General / Editor / 17 May 2007 /

The Italian Open in Rome has been thrown wide open after top seed Amelie Mauresmo was sent crashing out at the second-round stage by unseeded Australian Samantha Stosur.

The Frenchwoman was playing in only her second tournament since undergoing appendix surgery and her rustiness showed as she failed to take the chances that came her way, with Stosur emerging victorious 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (9-7).

The defeat has also hit Mauresmo's hopes for the French Open, beginning on May 27, and punters are appearing to lose faith in her chances of winning at Roland Garros. The current Wimbledon champion is now on offer at 14 to lift the title in Paris, having been matched at a low of 6.8 to small stakes. Justine Henin remains the strong 2.5 favourite ahead of Serena Williams at 5.6.

Mauresmo said: "I guess I didn't keep the intensity the way I should have.

"So, nothing much to say but except that I'm disappointed, and obviously I guess the lack of matches showed a little bit."

Stosur will now meet 14th seed Patty Schnyder, who beat Meilen Yu 6-4 6-0, but she is not fancied to progress as she is on offer at 3.55, with the Swiss ace the overwhelming favourite at 1.38.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova has been backed in to 4.4 in the outright winner's market after booking her passage with a 6-3 6-3 win over Mara Santangelo, while third seed Jelena Jankovic (7.2) advanced after beating Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3 6-4.

Australian Open champion Williams heads the market at 2.98 but faces a tough third-round match-up against 11th seed Shahar Peer, after the Israeli beat Ai Sugiyama 6-0 6-2.

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