Upsets mark tennis play at Birmingham

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BIRMINGHAM, England, June 12 (UPI) -- Ninth-seeded Marina Erakovic advanced but four other seeded players were eliminated Tuesday at the AEGON Classic in England.

Rains Monday led to a very crowded slate for first-round matches Tuesday and a handful were suspended because of darkness.

Erakovic fashioned a 5-0 lead in just 18 minutes in her first-round match, winning 20 of 28 points, when Ayumi Morita retired.

Qualifier Melanie Oudin upset 10th-seeded Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and wild-card entrant Tara Moore ousted No. 11 Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2 in just 43 minutes. Local favorite Anne Keothavong beat 12th-seeded Tamira Paszek 6-2, 7-5 and Stephanie Foretz Gacon advanced 6-4, 6-2 over No. 16 Eleni Daniilidou.

Qualifiers Zheng Jie and Michelle Larch de Brito each posted three-set wins and lucky loser Sesil Karatantcheva and British wild-card Melanie South also earned their way into the second round.

Other winners Tuesday were Urszula Radwanska, Elena Vesnina, Virginie Razzano,

Andrea Hlavackova, Melinda Czink and Casey Dellacqua. British players Heather Watson and Laura Robson also are into the second round as are Misaki Doi and Anastasia Rodionova.