Four Seeds Lose at WTA Palermo

After leading Italy to its first Fed Cup final, Pennetta suffered a bitter first round upset loss against unseeded Julia Schruff on Wednesday. Schruff prevailed 61 75 to enter her fifth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour quarterfinal. The 23-year-old German will face another tough Italian, Romina Oprandi, in the second round. Oprandi just recently made her career breakthrough at Rome. As a qualifier, she made the quarterfinals, held match point against Svetlana Kuznetsova and broke into the Top 80.

In second round action, French qualifier Aravane Rezai knocked out Krajicek, 63 64, to make her first Tour quarterfinal. The 19-year-old from St.Etienne captured her fifth career ITF Circuit singles title in March and then posted a career-best Grand Slam performance at Roland Garros, upsetting Ai Sugiyama en route to the third round and pushing eventual semifinalist Nicole Vaidisova to three sets.

Also in the second round, Italian wild card Tathiana Garbin scored the third upset of the day by eliminating Anna Smashnova 75 63. The 29-year old from Mestre has posted several impressive results on clay, including final appearances at Modena and Bogota. In 2004, she became the first Italian woman in the Open Era to defeat a world No.1, ousting Justine Henin-Hardenne in the second round of Roland Garros. Garbin next faces either Schruff or Oprandi in the quarterfinals.

Roberta Vinci was responsible for Koukalova's departure. The unseeded Italian defeated last year's finalist, 62 76(6), to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Rezai. Vinci also reached the quarters here last year but lost to Pennetta.

On Thursday, three-time champion and No.2 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues returns to action against Anastasiya Yakimova.
-- WTA