Stuttgart, July 17: Top seed Carlos Moya and Tim Henman's Wimbledon conqueror Sebastien Grosjean were both the victims of early upsets in Stuttgart.
Moya was edged out 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/2) by German Tomas Behrend while Grosjean was thrashed 6-2 6-1 by Italian Filippo Volandri. Both Spaniard Moya and fourth-seeded Grosjean had had byes in the first round of the claycourt tournament.
Moya's defeat came after a hard-fought contest but Grosjean won only three games as he struggled to switch from the faster grass surface on which he reached the semi-finals at the All England Club earlier this month.
The pair became the latest big-name casualties in Stuttgart after fellow seeds Albert Costa and Felix Mantilla lost on Tuesday. Beating Moya is the second time in two months that the 28-year-old Behrend, ranked 98th in the world, has beaten a former world number one.
The Brazilian-born German beat Marcelo Rios at the World Team Championship in Dusseldorf. "I feel sensational," he said after his win over Moya. "I had to play aggressive or I had no chance against him. I got a little lucky in the first set - at 6-5 he missed some easy forehands but then I played a great tiebreak."



Another seed to fall on Wednesday was Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic, who was beaten by David Ferrer of Spain. Sixteenth-seeded Ljubicic went down 7-6 (7-3) 6-1. However, fifth seed Jiri Novak, who beat Wimbledon champion Roger Federer to win the Swiss Open last weekend, eased past Sargis Sargsian 6-4 6-4. Third seed and local favourite Rainer Schuettler overcame countryman Maximilian Abel 6-2 6-4.



Sixth seed Fernando Gonzalez, ninth seed Tommy Robredo and 11th seed Jarkko Nieminen all needed three sets to reach the third round. Also through are 15th seed Alex Corretja and 12th seed Mikhail Youzhny also advanced into the third round.


Bureau Report