Wednesday February 16 2:23 PM ET
HANNOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Third seed Amelie Mauresmo might have had butterflies while facing a third straight second-round loss, but fortunately for her, Tina Pisnik's stomach was in worse shape.
A stomach virus kept Pisnik, a Slovakian, from competing in Wednesday's second-round match with Mauresmo at the $535,000 Faber Grand Prix tennis tournament.
The Frenchwoman broke a recent slump with the walkover. Mauresmo, since winning the Sydney International last month, had failed to make it past the second round at the Australian Open and in Paris last week.
Pisnik made the draw as a lucky loser and made the most of it by beating Italy's Silvia Farina on Tuesday, but her luck ran out today.
The other seeds playing second-round matches Wednesday, No. 4 Elena Likhovtseva of Russia and No. 6 Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania, were losers. Likhovtseva fell 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Czech Denisa Chladkova, while Dragomir was a 7-5, 6-2 loser to Anna Smashnova of Israel.
In first-round action, fifth-seeded Anke Huber of Germany was ousted by Belgian teenager Kim Clijsters, 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, and Kristie Boogert of the Netherlands cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Natasha Zvereva of Belarus.
Clijsters is participating in her third event of the season. At the start of the year in Hobart, she captured her second title in nine career tournaments, becoming the quickest ever to win two singles crowns in professional history.
Huber, who has played at this event every year since 1992 and reached the semifinals in 1996 and the quarterfinals in 1992, 1994, and 1998, fell to 1-4 this year.
First prize is $87,000.