Top-seeds Tommy Haas of Germany and Juan Carlos Ferraro of Spain have both lost their second round matches at the C.A. Trophy tennis tournament in Vienna, Austria. The top-seeded Haas was surprised by Austrian wild card Juergen Melzer, 6-4, 6-3.
Haas, who has not won a tournament this year and is nursing a sore shoulder, fought to the bitter end on Thursday. But he was overwhelmed by the tenacious play of his opponent and was let down by his own serve.
The second-seeded Ferraro was ousted by the Czech Republic's Bohdan Ulihrach, 6-4, 6-2. The defeat of the top two seeds leaves Spanish fourth-seed Carlos Moya as the hardcourt tournament's highest-ranked player in the last eight.
Elsewhere, Swiss sixth-seeded Roger Federer reached the quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory over Spain's Tommy Robredo. The 21-year-old Federer had to overcome a second set loss to win the match, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.
In other second round play, Romania's Andrei Pavel scored a 6-love, 6-4 win over Germany's Rainer Schuettler. Russia's Nikolay Davydenko beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 5-7, 7-5, while American James Blake defeated Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 6-4, 7-6.
French Davis Cup tennis player Nicolas Escude has beaten Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov to reach the quarterfinals of the Lyon Grand Prix tennis tournament in France.
Escude beat the second-seeded Kafelnikov 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday. The two players could meet again when France plays Russia for the Davis Cup final later this year. The Frenchman takes on Danish qualifier Kristian Pless in the quarterfinals.
Third-seeded Sebastien Grosjean advanced easily, beating Andre Sa of Brazil, 6-0, 6-1. Paul-Henri Mathieu of France advanced when his opponent, fourth-seeded Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden, withdrew with back spasms before the third set of their match. Another Swedish player, Jonas Bjorkman, defeated Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-3, 6-4.
In the late match, former French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil outlasted Swiss player Mark Rosset, 7-6 7-6.