Off-form Kuerten stumbles in first round

Gustavo Kuerten suffered a shock defeat in the first round of the Lyon Grand Prix on Tuesday, going down 7-6 6-2 to Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.

The top-seeded Brazilian, who leads the ATP Champions Race and has already qualified for the Masters Cup, lost the first set tiebreak 7-1 to the 22-year-old Ljubicic and won only two more games on the way to his 12th defeat in 71 matches this season.

"My problem is that I'm returning from holidays and I need match play to get used to the surface," the Brazilian said.

The first set was very balanced, but any hopes Kuerten had of winning the match were dashed when the big-serving Ljubicic brushed him aside in the tiebreak.

Ljubicic raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Kuerten salvaged his pride by taking a couple of games before bowing out.

"It was frustrating to lose the first set after I had three chances to break him at four-all.

"Afterwards I lost momentum," the Brazilian said.

Despite Ljubicic's feat, the real hero of the day was Australian Wayne Arthurs, whose sportsmanship cost him victory against little-known Israeli Noam Okun.

Arthurs served for the match at 8-7 in the third set tiebreak and rushed to the net.

Okun's return was judged out and the umpire announced that the Australian had won the match before Arthurs admitted touching the ball before it went wide.

Okun went on to win 4-6 7-5 7-6, clinching the final tiebreak 10-8.

Earlier, Marat Safin, desperately seeking points to snatch a last-gasp berth in the Masters Cup, beat Franco Squillari 6-4 7-5 to reach the second round.

It took Safin just over 90 minutes to knock out the 26-year-old Argentine, a former French Open semifinalist, the Russian firing 12 aces before clinching victory with a service winner on his first match point.

"Last week in Moscow, I was booed by my home crowd for my second-round defeat against Dominik Hrbaty," said the third-seeded Safin, who received a wild card to play in Lyon.

"That's the way I am. One day I'm the best, the next I'm the worst," the former U.S. Open champion added.

"I'm only 11th in the (Champions) Race right now and if I want to make it to the Masters Cup in Sydney, I must seize every opportunity."

Other first-round winners on Tuesday were fourth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, who beat his countryman Julien Boutter 6-2 6-4, Swede Jonas Bjorkman and Julien Benneteau of France.