Top seeds Golovin, Bammer ease into Portoroz QFs

Portoroz, Slovenia (Sports Network) - This week's top seeds -- France's Tatiana Golovin and Austrian Sybille Bammer -- highlighted Wednesday's second- round winners at the $145,000 Slovenia Open.
Golovin grounded Italian Karin Knapp 6-4, 6-3, while Bammer blitzed Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-2 on the hardcourts at SRC Marina in the beautiful coastal city of Portoroz.
Two other seeds moved into the quarterfinals here, as No. 5 Russian Vera Zvonareva held off Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 and No. 8 Russian Vera Dushevina doused Czech Iveta Benesova 6-4, 6-4. Zvonareva and Dushevina will square off in an all-Russian quarter on Friday.
The first round finally concluded on Wednesday, with three matches that were either suspended or postponed because of rain and/or darkness here on Tuesday. Seventh-seeded Argentine Gisela Dulko dropped Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6-3, 6-4, while ninth-seeded American Meilen Tu got past Croat Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) and Russian Elena Vesnina outlasted Slovenian wild card Polona Hercog 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4.
On Thursday, fourth-seeded heavy Slovenian crowd favorite Katarina Srebotnik will battle American veteran Meghann Shaughnessy in a second-round affair.
The 2007 Portoroz winner will pocket $21,140.