In Montreal, a nasty virus spreading through the Rogers Cup field was unable to stop Marion Bartoli of France from defeating qualifier Melanie South of Britain 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0 in their opener on Monday.

The 10th-seeded Bartoli received on-court treatment during the second set as she overcame a queasy stomach and a case of the shakes at Uniprix Stadium.

"I was not feeling good at all," Bartoli said. "My legs were shaking. My arms were shaking by themselves. I was really dizzy. I got cold.

"The doctor gave me some tablets. They helped a lot in the third set but it took a while for me to feel a little better. But I needed to come up with the win, so whatever it took, I had to hang in tough."

She was told by a physiotherapist that 15 to 20 players have contracted the virus.

"They told us to wash even more our hands and not touch the same food as the others, or drink the same water - to be really careful because there's a virus going on," Bartoli said.

Ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder led 7-6 (6), 3-2 when Yuan Meng of China retired with a thigh injury, while 17-year-old Tamira Paszek of Austria beat 14th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-1 in a match interrupted four times by rain.

Qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito, the 15-year-old from Portugal who reached the round of 16 two weeks ago in Stanford, California, continued to impress with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over American Vania King.

In other first-round matches, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia rolled past Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-1, 6-1, Monica Niculescu of Romania downed qualifier Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 6-1, 6-2, and Virginie Razzano beat French countrywoman Aravane Rezai 6-1, 6-2 in the same tournament round for the second straight year.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic beat Aiko Nakamura of Japan 6-2, 6-4 to line up a match with top-ranked Ana Ivanovic, and Anastasia Rodionova of Russia defeated Cara Black of Zimbabwe 6-2, 6-2.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 30, 2008)