Top six seeds advance in Gstaad Grand Slam

(BEIJING, July 25) -- Eight women's teams, including the top six seeds, earned a bye in the first elimination round of the Gstaad Grand Slam after topping their pools in the round robin stage.

The 10th seed Simone Kuhn and Lea Schwer of Switzerland posted a win yesterday morning and advanced from their upset-laden pool.

Kuhn and Schwer were given a helping hand from the French team of Morgane Faure and Virginie Sarpaux. Faure and Sarpaux beat the previously undefeated Dutch team of Mared de Vries and Sanne Keizer, thus creating a three-way tie at the top of their pool with the Dutch, French and Swiss teams. Since Kuhn and Schwer had won both of their matches in straight sets, they earned the bye because they had a better set record.

Wang Jie and Tian Jia, seeded first, and Xue Chen and Zhang Xi, seeded fourth, both from China, topped their pools and advanced through to the next stage without dropping a single set.

The Brazilian teams, which accounted for three of the top five seeds, all topped their pools. The Brazilian teams are Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly, Carolina and Maria Cara Salgado, and Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Leao.

Australia's Tamsin Barnett and Natalie Cook topped their pool and earned a bye in the first elimination round.

The other team to earn a bye was the 24-seeded Swedish duo of Angelica Ljungquist and Karin Lundquist.

The first elimination round begins today, with the winners taking on the pool leaders in the second elimination round.