Former world number one Jennifer Capriati and second seed Amelie Mauresmo began their bids for the first Rome titles of their careers with comfortable second-round wins on Wednesday.
While the American swept aside Venezuala's Maria Vento-Kabchi 6-2, 6-1, Mauresmo had to work harder to overcome fellow Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 7-5, 6-2.
It was, meanwhile, a day of mixed fortunes for the Russian contingent. Four progressed to join Maria Sharapova, who went through on Tuesday, in the last 16, but the top two, third seed Anastasia Myskina and fourth seed Nadia Petrova, tumbled out.
Myskina lost to compatriot Elena Likhovtseva, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, while Petrova was beaten 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 by home favourite Flavia Pennetta.
Fifth seed Capriati showed signs of hitting form on slow European clay last week, when she reached the semi-finals of the WTA event in Berlin, and needed less than an hour to muscle past her Venezualan opponent.
A good run at Rome, she said afterwards, was an important part of her preparation for the French Open, which starts on May 24.
"At these kind of tournaments it's a case of getting the kinks out, basically. Of course, they'd be nice to win, but you don't want to peak too early," she said.
"I think I'm getting there. I'm feeling more like myself, being aggressive on court, really going for my shots and moving well."
BACK STRAIN
Mauresmo spent the best part of a set finding the rhythm to overcome solid resistance from Dechy and set up an intriguing third-round clash with Conchita Martinez, who won the Rome tournament four times between 1993 and 1996.
How Mauresmo must envy Martinez her titles. The Frenchwoman has finished runner-up in the Italian capital for three of the past four years.
Her latest bid to break the pattern is already threatened by a back strain that she suffered at the Australian Open earlier this year and has limited her competitive outings ever since.
"The game is getting tougher and tougher. The level has improved a lot the past few years and we ask a lot of our bodies -- to practice, to play in competition," she said.
"We're trying to adjust the schedule to have some time off, but it's not so easy.
"Right now I feel good. My back is not giving me so many problems, even though it's not yet 100 percent. Once you get back on court, you just have to forget about it."
Likhovtseva, who at 28 seems like the grand old lady of Russian tennis, mixed up the pace and spin of her groundshots to disrupt Myskina's rhythm.
But the third seed, at 22 already veteran of the tour, could not blame inexperience for her defeat.
If Myskina's defeat bucked the formbook, Petrova's tore it up, as the world number six succumbed to the player ranked 66 places below her.
Roared on by a partisan crowd on Rome's number two court, Pennetta recovered from a break down in the deciding set to book a third-round meeting with Israel's Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi.
