TASHKENT, Sept 12: The President’s Cup lost its top two seeds Thursday with the withdrawal of second seed Tommy Haas while top seed and defending champion Marat Safin was bundled out by Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan.

Haas, ranked number two in the world, retired from his quarterfinal match against Belarussian qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov with an elbow injury while trailing 6-2 2-1.

“It just didn’t make any sense for me to keep on playing because I felt the pain in my elbow after every shot,” said the German, who received treatment at the end of the first set.

“It started in yesterday’s match and then today I felt it right from the start. There was nothing I could do about it.”

Meanwhile, Safin, who was stretched to the limit by Slovakian teenager Karol Beck in the previous round, lost 6-3 7-6 to Paradorn.

The fifth-seeded Thai broke the former world number one in the second game to take the opening set 6-3.

After both players held their serve throughout the second set, Paradorn finished off Safin on his first opportunity in the tiebreak with a crisp forehand down the line.

Voltchkov, who reached the Wimbledon semifinals two years ago but has since slumped to 153 in the world, broke Haas three times in the first set.

After being broken again in the third game of the second set, the German quit.

Haas said the injury could be serious, but hopes it will not affect the rest of his playing schedule.

In Friday’s semifinals, Voltchkov will meet eighth-seeded Italian Davide Sanguinetti, who eliminated unseeded Kristian Pless of Denmark 4-6 7-6 6-2, while Paradorn will face third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov who defeated Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-2.— Reuters