ROME, May 5: Defending champion Andre Agassi tumbled out of the Rome Masters on Monday after suffering a shock 0-6 7-6 6-4 loss to Spain’s David Ferrer in the opening round.

Agassi, who replaced Lleyton Hewitt at the top of the world rankings last week, overwhelmed Ferrer with the precision of his groundstrokes in a one-sided first set.

The Spaniard, however, refused to buckle and took the second set into a tiebreak.

Ferrer earned a mini-break by forcing Agassi into a forehand error and then levelled the match with a beautiful lob over the American.

Ferrer broke Agassi in the third game of the decider but the 33-year-old replied immediately, hitting shots deep to the baseline and forcing his opponent into unforced errors to level the score at 2-2.

Both players failed to capitalise on break points in the sixth and seventh games of the set but, in the ninth, Agassi gifted Ferrer the break with a double fault.

World number 60 Ferrer served out for the match to complete his unexpected victory.

First round results

David Ferrer bt Andre Agassi 0-6 7-6 (7-3); 6-4; Ivan Ljubicic bt Xavier Malisse 6-2 6-4; Victor Hanescu bt Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-1) 6-3; 15-Guillermo Coria (Argentina) beat Tim Henman (Britain) 6-2 6-1; Felix Mantilla bt David Nalbandian 6-3 1-6 6-0; Mardy Fish bt Fabrice Santoro 7-5 7-5; Albert Costa bt Zelijko Krajan 6-4 7-5; Martin Verkerk bt Vincent Spadea 6-3 7-6 (7-2); Jiri Novak bt Wayne Arthurs 6-3 6-3; Dominik Hrbaty bt Thomas Enquist 6-3 6-3; Wayne Ferreira bt Feliciano Lopez 3-6 6-4 6-3.

German Open RESULTS