By Craig McWalter
April 12 2002

Defeats for seventh seed Meghann Shaughnessy and 13th seeded American Alexandra Stevenson mean 11 of the 16 seeds have crashed out in the opening two rounds. Second-seed Justine Henin avoided the rash of upsets with a 6-4 7-5 win over Clarissa Fernandez.

Henin's pinpoint placement and passing shots, especially on the backhand, enabled her to break Fernandez once in both sets and send her into the last 16.

"I've had that style (one-handed) backhand ever since I was six years old," Henin said. "I've been asked if I would try two-handed. Never, never, never. I won't do anything to change that shot.

"This was a good start to my clay court season, as it's the first match I've had on clay after just a few practices."

Shaughnessy, meanwhile, fell to Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-1 1-6 6-0 while Stevenson was beaten by Anastasia Mysinka of Russia, 2-6 6-0 6-2.

Mysinka said that the power game of Stevenson fitted her style of play: "I like to play the big power hitters, like Alexandra or Venus (Williams). I played Venus in Dubai and it went three sets before I lost 6-4 in the third."

Myskina will get another crack at the world's number two when she meets Williams in the next round on Thursday.

Sanchez-Vicario was making her record 13th Bausch and Lomb appearance, but showed little of the form that won her the title in 1993 and 1994.

"I don't know if I'll be back next year, I haven't decided on what my plans are for 2003 at this point," said Sanchez-Vicario, now in her 17th year on the WTA circuit.

Jelena Dokic, seeded third, had her match with Mary Pierce postponed by rain.