Schiavone, Maleeva and Camerin into next round.

Francesca Schiavone of Italy had no trouble hammering away Nuria Llagostera Vives from Spain out of the tournament; the match was over within the hour 6-1, 6-0.

Bulgarian veteran Magdalena Maleeva outplayed Belgian old-timer Els Callens, who said 2005 will be her last year on the tour. In only 48 minutes the player from Sofia defeated the player from Antwerp 6-0, 6-1.

Maleeva said that she didn’t expect to win that easy and that she was ready for a tough game. “This is also a good chance to play a top player” she said about meeting Kim Clijsters in the next round. “Clijsters is pretty strong and strength is her best weapon, she does not have many weaknesses. I am not going to focus on her game I just concentrate on my own strength”.

Magdalena Maleeva has a bad record against the former No.1 from Bree. Clijsters is leading their meetings 5 love. The only match that got to three sets was at the French Open of 2003 in R16. They have met in two finals. In 2001 in Leipzig 6-1, 6-1 and 2002 in Luxembourg 6-1, 6-2.

She doesn’t seem to be worried about the crowd getting all behind Kim and not rooting for her. “Well playing against Daniilidou in Athens is worse”, she said about being the underdog.

Els Callens was not satisfied with her game. She didn’t serve good and her legs were not feeling right. “Maybe it was because of the late match on Tuesday, maybe that is why I am not as fit as usual. Normally I play the same sort of game as Maleeva but today it didn’t work out”

“I was not extra motivated to win this one so that I could play Kim in the next round, I take each match as it comes and I am always motivated to win any match, I don’t need that extra boost.”

The sponsor Whirlpool handed out a washing machine to Els Callens for the work she did at the sponsor booth during the tournament. She was signing autographs and cooking scampi in the microwave, which turned out very tasty, she said.

Callens and Maleeva’s next tournament will be the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany. All the players seem to like that tournament. The all can drive a Porsche for a week; some are even presented with a Porsche for free. That happened to Justine Henin-Hardenne, who didn’t need to win one; she just got one for free.

Furthermore there is the starting money that is very good in Filderstadt, the players also like the players party very much and they find gifts in their free hotel rooms every day of the week.

Fourth seed Karolina Sprem of Croatia did not make it into the next round. Italian Maria Elena Camerin defeated her in two sets 6-4, 6-4.

Karolina Sprem never found her best game, missing her shots and playing as good as she did on earlier occasions this year. Maria Elena Camerin of Venezia, Italy had lost their previous meeting in Vienna in 2003 and tied the head-to-head one all.