Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan ousted sixth seed Mario Ancic of Croatia 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 on Monday and seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean also exited from a $380 000 ATP tournament in Los Angeles.
Paradorn, 44th in the latest ATP rankings, dumped 30th-rated Ancic to book a second-round match at the United States Open hard-court tune-up event against American wild card Paul Goldstein, who ousted France’s Cyril Saulnier 6-4, 6-4.
Top seed Andre Agassi could await in the quarterfinals for Paradorn, who improved to 16-20 for the year and hopes to take back-to-back victories for only the second time in his past 14 tournaments just to reach the last eight.
Agassi opens on Tuesday with a first-round match against French lucky loser Jean-Rene Lisnard. Agassi’s second-round foe would be American Kevin Kim, who defeated Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4.
Agassi has not played an ATP match since an opening-round loss at the French Open in May. A nagging sciatic nerve problem kept the 35-year-old American out of Wimbledon for the second year in a row, and fuelled rumours that his days on the tour might be numbered.
Brazil’s Ricardo Mello eliminated Grosjean 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. The 24-year-old South American left-hander advanced to a second-round match against either a qualifier or American wild card Cecil Mamit.
Mello, 12-14 in 2005, failed to get past the first round in his prior five ATP events since reaching the second round in April at Munich, but Grosjean lofted a forehand beyond the baseline on Mello’s third match point to fall.
”It’s unbelievable feeling to come away with a victory like this,” Mello said. ”I have been having a lot of difficulty with my results, but this could be the match to change my rhythm and get me excited about moving on again.”
Also advancing were Juan Ignacio Chela, who beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 6-4, and Belgium’s Xavier Malisse, who beat South Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik 6-3, 6-4. — Sapa-AFP