Agassi joins seeded casualties in Hamburg

Ossian Shine

Third seed Andre Agassi followed other seeded casualties Marat Safin, Magnus Norman and Alex Corretja out of the Hamburg Masters on Wednesday after losing 6-3 5-7 6-4 to Fabrice Santoro.

Agassi's defeat leaves the tournament without its top six seeds.

"I am just going to have to go away and practice," the American said.

"I need to get just a tiny bit better because everyone is so good these days.

"It is frustrating...you work hard for two-and-a-quarter hours and then you play badly for six minutes and it loses you the match."

Second seed Safin suffered an embarrassing 6-0 7-6 defeat to Argentine Gaston Gaudio as his already miserable season plumbed new depths.

The U.S. Open champion is yet to win a tournament this year and looked a forlorn figure on a windy court at the Rothenbaum Tennis Centre.

Safin, finalist here last year, could barely keep the ball in play in the first set as the world number 40 dominated.

He rallied in the second set, though, finally registering on the scoreboard, but fell apart in the tie-break.

The Argentine swept into a 6-0 lead and clinched victory when Safin double-faulted.

Fifth-seeded Norman put up more of a fight against Spain's Albert Portas but the Swede was found short in both sets as he lost 7-6 7-6.

Spain's Corretja, seeded 10th, could not match Ecuadorean Nicolas Lapentti in their rain-interrupted match and went down 6-4 6-1.

Eleven of the 16 seeds have now been knocked out after three days of action.

POINTS SQUANDERED
Earlier, Tommy Haas squandered nine match points and was booed off court at the end of his 2-6 7-6 7-5 loss to Hicham Arazi.

"I thought I played good tennis today," Haas said. "I just didn't win the big points - these things happen in life. So...bad luck."

Gutsy Moroccan Arazi, a finalist at the Monte Carlo Masters last month, used all his experience to stay in the match against Haas and on Arazi's first match point the German double-faulted.

"I just kept fighting," Arazi said afterwards. "I knew if I did that I would be in with a chance.

"It was unlucky for Tommy but I just fought till the end."

Spanish form player Juan Carlos Ferrero did not put a foot wrong as he fought off free-hitting Harel Levy to move into the third round 7-6 6-3, while fourteenth seed Jan-Michael Gambill dispatched former world number one Marcelo Rios 6-3 6-4.

Eighth-seeded Ferrero overcame tiredness to secure victory over Levy and the Spaniard, who won his maiden Masters title in Rome last week, plays Lapentti in the last 16 of the $2.95 million event.

"I was feeling pretty tired in the first set, it went on a while," Ferrero said afterwards.

"But I felt much better as the match wore on."

CLAY CREDENTIALS
Levy underlined his clay court credentials in Rome when he beat Pete Sampras and Nicolas Kiefer on his way to the quarter-finals, and he came out hitting winners on the Centre Court.

Mixing up heavy groundstrokes with delicate drop shots, the Israeli proved a handful in the early stages.

Ferrero dug in, though, and had a set point at 5-4 on Levy's serve. The Israeli saved it with a flashing backhand down the line and then held before forcing a tiebreak.

Levy took a 5-2 lead as Ferrero looked tired, but with the set in sight, he loosened his grip.

Ferrero reeled off the next five points, sealing the set after 69 minutes when Levy pushed a backhand wide, and the Israeli never recovered.

Organisers closed the retractable roof early in the second set because of rain, but Ferrero kept his concentration to clinch victory with a forehand winner.

Another Spaniard, Albert Costa, moved into the third round when Bohdan Ulihrach retired with a wrist injury. Costa had been leading 4-6 6-1 2-1.

Alberto Martin beat Alex Calatrava in an all-Spanish affair 6-3 6-2, while Australia's Andrew Ilie ended Lars Burgsmueller's hopes, 6-3 6-3.

Nicolas Escude highlighted the shift in power in French tennis by beating compatriot Cedric Pioline 6-4 3-6 6-1.