Schiavone, Peer crash out in Doha tennis

The cull of seeded players continued in Doha with Francesca Schiavone and Shahar Peer crashing out of the WTA Qatar Open in one-sided matches here on Wednesday. Italian Schiavone, the third seed, became the biggest casualty yet at the tournament when she was ousted by China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 6-3 in the second round, while the eighth-seeded Peer, who had beaten two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kusnetsova on Tuesday, was thrashed by Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-1, 6-0. The sixth seeded Victoria Azarenka was beaten by Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova on Tuesday, while Pole Agnieszka Radwanska had crashed to the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova on Monday. Schiavone, the world number five, was thoroughly outplayed by the bustling Peng, who scored her second consecutive victory over the Italian, following her win at the 2009 Australian Open. "Playing against Francesca is always difficult," said Peng. "But I was the better player today. She tested me in the first set, but I was more determined," added Peng, who broke her rival twice in each set and will take on Bartoli next in the third round. Peng, however, said her win was not the best of her career. "Sorry to disappoint you but this was not my best win," said Peng. "I think the best victory so far in my career came against Kim Clijsters in San Diego in 2005." Schiavone, who became the first Italian to win the French Open last year, said maybe she should be taking a break from the game. "I should take some days off, but there is no time.... sometimes tennis players can decide, sometimes not," said the Italian, who also compared playing tennis with journalism. "Sometimes you write even when you don't like (it), but you write. It's the same for us." Bartoli, too, was in a zone of her own as she totally dominated Peer to win in 61 minutes. Israeli Peer had won seven of their previous nine encounters beginning 2005, the most recent coming at the French Open last year. Peer was impressed with Bartoli's performance, saying if she continued to keep playing like she did she could even become the world number one. "She gave me no chance," said Peer. "I have won seven out of nine times against her in the past, but today she was simply too good. "If she plays all her matches like this she will win 99 per cent of her matches and would even become the world number one." "Shahar has dominated me in the past so it was nice to get a win against her," said Bartoli. The top seeded Caroline Wozniacki and the second seeded Vera Zvonareva were due to play their second round matches later on Wednesday.