Second seed Schiavone of Italy had a routine win over American qualifier Christina McHale, winning 6-3 6-1 in one hour and 11 minutes. Schiavone broke McHale four times throughout the match with McHale having no answer to Schiavone's attacking game.

Russian Maria Sharapova also enjoyed a comfortable straight-sets win with a 6-1 6-1 victory over compatriot Ekaterina Makarova. Makarova had taken Sharapova to three sets in last week’s Madrid tournament but Sharapova was keen to not let that happen again here in Rome.

"I kind of let her back into the match in Madrid - I wanted to get the job done faster today," said Sharapova. "Last week I played three sets in the first two rounds and it's something I really wanted to change here. Now I'm trying to keep the energy up and do the right things and not have any letdowns again."

Other winners at the WTA Internazionali BNL d'Italia on Tuesday included American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who defeated 15th-seed and home favourite Flavia Pennetta 6-4 4-6 6-3 and Shahar Peer of Israel who put out Bojana Jovanovski 3-6 6-0 6-4.