ROME, May 7: Monica seles swept into the third round of the Italian Open here yesterday, but the tournament came to an abrupt end for fellow American Jennifer Capriati.

Seles was a 7-5 6-0 winner over Austrian Barbara Schett in a rain-delayed night match, but Capriati was sent packing by Chanda Rubin after dominating the first set 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.

Seles, who now meets either American Ann Grossman or France's Mary Pierce, broke to love for 3-1 and then served out to love for 4-1 in a sparkling display of precision tennis.

Capriati made her European professional debut in Rome in 1990, but hadn't played at the Foro Italico in four years after her career was derailed by drug and alcohol abuse. She had beaten Rubin in Sydney in January and was hoping for a good showing before a partisan crowd to get her game back on track. ``It was a big disappointment, especially since I was ahead,'' said Capriati, who let the first set slip away.

The only other high seed in action yesterday was No 7 Irina Spirlea, who outlasted Spaniard Cristina Torrens-Valero 7-5 7-6 (7-5) in a match interrupted by rain three times for a total of 75 minutes.

Rubin, ranked 29th, will face four-time defending champion Conchita Martinez in the second round. The top eight seeds in the $926,250 tournament had first-round byes.

One seed fell in yesterday's action, with Belgium's Dominique van Roost beating No 15 Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-7 (2-7) 6-1 6-2.

No 10 Mary Pierce, No 11 Barbara Paulus, No 14 Ruxandra Dragomir and No 16 Sandrine Testud advanced. Pierce defeated Sandra Cecchini of Italy 6-1 6-1, Paulus came back to beat American Kristina Brandi 3-6 6-3 7-5, Dragomir dismissed Italy's Alica Canepa 6-3, 6-0 and Testud got past Miriam Oremans 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4).

The $2.3 million men's edition of the Italian Open begins on Monday with the field led by No 1 Pete Sampras.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.