ROME, May 6: Four seeds were sent tumbling out of the Rome Masters on Thursday as the underdogs reigned supreme before rain stopped play at the Foro Italico.
Lleyton Hewitt, Sebastien Grosjean, Paradorn Srichaphan and Sjeng Schalken all went out after losing their delayed second round matches that were carried over from the previous day.
However former French Open champion Carlos Moya survived the cull, living up to his billing as one of favourites with a comfortable straight sets victory over Ivan Ljubicic.
The Spanish number six seed needed just 67 minutes to secure a 6-2, 6-4 win to set up a third round meeting against either compatriot Tommy Robredo, who triumphed in Barcelona last week, or Croatian Ivo Karlovic.
Two second round matches were in progress before heavy showers brought play to a halt. Robredo was tied at 5-5 in the first set against Karlovic, while Argentine fifth seed David Nalbandian led Brazil's Flavio Saretta 6-2, 3-1.
Australian 15th seed Hewitt was sent packing by plucky Romanian Andrei Pavel. Two-time Grand Slam winner Hewitt took the first set, but Pavel fought back to clinch a three-setter.
Pavel, who won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, will meet Spaniard David Sanchez in the last 16. French seventh seed Grosjean was humbled by David Ferrer, Thai 10th seed Paradorn fell to Russian Marat Safin and Italian number one Filippo Volandri beat Dutch 11th seed Schalken, much to the delight of a patriotic home crowd.
Ferrer, who beat Andre Agassi in the first round here last year when the American was defending champion, will meet Czech 12th seed Jiri Novak. Novak barely broke sweat in his 6-1, 6-1 victory over Belarusian Max Mirnyi. Safin defeated Paradorn 6-2, 6-2.
Third round results: Mariano Zabaleta bt Tim Henman 3-6 6-3 6-2
Second round: David Nalbandian bt Flavio Saretta 6-2 6-4; Ivo Karlovic bt Tommy Robredo 7-6 (7-5) 6-4; Andrei Pavel bt Lleyton Hewitt 4-6 6-3 6-4; Filippo Volandri bt Sjeng Schalken 6-2 6-3; Carlos Moya bt Ivan Ljubicic 6-2 6-4; Jiri Novak bt Max Mirnyi 6-1 6-1; David Sanchez bt Guillermo Canas 7-5 6-2; David Ferrer bt Sebastien Grosjean 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-2; Marat Safin bt Paradorn Srichaphan 6-2 6-2
German Open results
BERLIN: Third round results at the $1.3 m German Open tennis tournament on Thursday:
Karolina Sprem (Croatia) bt Kim Clijsters (Belgium), walkover; Venus Williams (U.S.) bt Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi (Israel) 6-3 6-1; Fabiola Zuluaga (Colombia) bt Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-4; Paola Suarez (Argentina) bt Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-1 7-6 (8-6); Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) bt Maria Sharapova (Russia) 5-7 6-4 6-1; Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt Elena Dementieva (Russia) 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-4; Anastasia Myskina (Russia) bt Patty Schnyder (Switzerland), walkover. -Agencies
