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MUNICH, April 30: Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan was beaten in straight sets by Czech Radek Stepanek in the second round of the Munich Open on Wednesday, the second time in successive weeks he has crashed out of a tournament early.
Stepanek cruised through to the quarterfinals with a crushing 6-3 6-2 win over second seed Paradorn, who last week became the first Asian man to make the world top 10 since the rankings were introduced in 1973.
After achieving the distinction he promptly lost in the second round of the Barcelona Open.
In other matches, former French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, seeded fifth, dropped the second set to unheralded German Alexander Waske but held on for a 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory in a match that lasted two hours 35 minutes.
Waske’s departure left Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler as the only German left in the draw.
Third seed Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands defeated Australia’s Wayne Arthurs 7-6 6-3.
Wednesday’s results:
2nd round: Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Rus x5) bt Alexander Waske (Ger) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; Sjeng Schalken (Ned x3) bt Wayne Arthurs (Aus) 7-6 (7/4), 6-3; Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha x2) 6-3, 6-2; Jarkko Nieminen (Fin x8) bt Jean-Rene Lisnard (Fra) 6-3, 6-0.
Safin shocked
VALENCIA (Spain): Argentine Franco Squillari provided the shock of the first round at the inaugural Valencia Open by beating second seed Marat Safin 6-4 5-7 6-2 on Tuesday.
The left-hander fought back from a break down to take the first set and although Safin managed to pull level in the second, Squillari eventually wore the Russian down with some fine ground strokes to claim a well-deserved victory.
Safin, who had appeared to be finding his form after making the final of last week’s Barcelona Open, joins third seed Alex Corretja on the list of major first round victims in the claycourt tournament.
Corretja lost in three sets to Frenchman Anthony Dupuis on Monday.
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero did make it through to the second round, but had to work harder than expected in his 6-4 6-4 victory over fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Ferrero broke serve early in the first set, but found himself on the back foot as his young opponent responded with some fine stroke play.
Tuesday’s results:
1st round: Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa x1) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) 6-4, 6-4; Christophe Rochus (Bel) bt Albert Montanes (Spa) 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2; David Sanchez (Spa) bt Olivier Patience (Fra) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; Nicolas Massu (Chi) bt Alberto Martin (Spa) 6-2, 7-6 (7/4); Frantisek Cermak (Cze) bt Fernando Verdasco (Spa) 7-6 (9/7), 6-0; Flavio Saretta (Bra) bt Mariano Zabaleta (Arg x6) 6-1, 6-3; Gaston Gaudio (Arg x4) bt Andre Sa (Bra) 6-1, 6-1; Galo Blanco (Spa) bt Alex Calatrava (Spa) 6-3, 6-1.—Reuters/AFP
