Copenhagen, Feb 26: German qualifier Tomas Behrend defeated seventh-seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia yesterday in the first of three upsets that saw top seeded players eliminated from the 400,000-dollar ATP Copenhagen Open in first round play.
The biggest surprise was delivered by Behrend who had to fight hard but managed to defeat the Croatian up-and-coming star 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/2) in three exciting sets.
Behrend had the chance to decide the match in two sets but missed out on the two match points he had in the second.

"I served well. That was important, because as it turned out I only had one break. But I always felt that I was closer to winning than losing the match," explained the German. Earlier, in a match dominated by the players' serving qualities, sixth-seeded Dutchman Martin Verkerk was eliminated in his first round match by Anthony Dupuis, as the Frenchman had little problem ousting him in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.



Fifth seed Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark also saw his hopes of advancing to the next round disappear after Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland claimed a surprise 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4 victory.



In other matches, Jean-Rene Lisnard of France beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-5, 6-4, while Switzerland's 1992 Olympic champion Marc Rosset beat Italian Massimo Dell'acqua 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4). Swedish veteran Magnus Larsson beat Frederik Nielsen of Denmark 6-1, 6-1.



On Monday, top seed Jarkko Nieminen was sent packing by Belgium's Olivier Rochus, who defeated the Finn in two quick sets 6-3, 6-2.


Bureau Report