MIAMI, March 22: Top seed Lleyton Hewitt crashed out of the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne on Friday night after a stomach upset took its toll in his opening match.

The world number one struggled to find any kind of form and lost 6-4 6-4 to veteran Spaniard Francisco Clavet after throwing up for most of the previous night.

Clavet, a 34-year-old left-hander ranked 178th in the world, became the fourth-lowest ranked player to beat a world number one since 1973.

He took advantage of Hewitt’s 33 unforced errors in a match lasting just over an hour and a half and changed the pace cleverly on several occasions in the second set when Hewitt dropped his service three times.

Hewitt saved one match point on Clavet’s serve before hitting into the net again on the second.

Clavet’s big weapon was his forehand and he foiled Hewitt regularly through the second set with fierce passing shots close to the tramlines.

Clavet, who says this probably his last season on the men’s professional tour, moves on to a meeting in the last 32 against Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea.

Lee advanced with a 6-7 6-2 6-1 win over 25th seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second Round: 24-Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Russia) beat Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 6-3 6-3; 5-Carlos Moya (Spain) beat Vincent Spadea (U.S.) 6-4 5-7 6-4; 28-Marcelo Rios (Chile) beat Taylor Dent (U.S.) 6-1 6-1; Francisco Clavet (Spain) beat 1-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6-4 6-4; 3-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Fernando Vicente (Spain) 6-2 6-2; 6-Andy Roddick (U.S.) beat Cyril Saulnier (France) 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (7-2) 6-4; Mardy Fish (U.S.) beat 11-Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-4 7-6 (7-3); 12-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat Jan-Michael Gambill (U.S.) 6-2 6-3;13-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) beat Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 6-4 7-6 (7-5); Robby Ginepri (U.S.) beat 16-Alex Corretja (Spain) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2; Nicolas Escude (France) beat 18-Tim Henman (Britain) 6-3 6-4 21-James Blake (U.S.) beat Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) beat 23-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-3 6-3; Lee Hyung-taik (South Korea) beat 25-Xavier Malisse (Belgium) 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 6-1; Todd Martin (U.S.) beat 27-Andrei Pavel (Romania) 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 2-0 retired; Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat 31-Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

Second round: 1-Serena Williams (U.S.) beat Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 7-5 6-1; Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzbekistan) beat 16-Elena Bovina (Russia) 6-4 7-5; 3-Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat Cho Yoon-jeong (South Korea) 6-2 6-2; Alicia Molik (Australia) beat 5-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 2-6 7-5 6-0; 7-Lindsay Davenport (U.S.) beat Cristina Torrens Valero (Spain) 6-2 6-1; 9-Jelena Dokic (Yugoslavia) beat Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1; 15-Anna Pistolesi (Israel) beat Fabiola Zuluaga (Colombia) 6-2 6-4; Nicole Pratt (Australia) beat 19-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 7-5 6-4; 21-Nathalie Dechy (France) beat Els Callens (Belgium) 6-4 6-3; 22-Lisa Raymond (U.S.) beat Claudine Schaul (Luxembourg) 6-2 6-4; Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (Spain) beat 24-Alexandra Stevenson (U.S.) 6-7 (2-7) 6-1 6-2; 25-Tatiana Panova (Russia) beat Marissa Irvin (U.S.) 4-6 6-3 6-3; 27-Paola Suarez (Argentina) beat Cara Black (Zimbabwe) 6-1 6-0; 28-Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) beat Silvija Talaja (Croatia) 6-7 (1-7) 6-2 6-4; Flavia Pennetta (Italy) beat 29-Iva Majoli (Croatia) 6-2 6-3; Marion Bartoli (France) beat Evie Dominikovic (Australia) 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-1.—Reuters