/ 4 August 2005

Muller drops Massu from field

Gilles Muller of Luxembourg defeated ninth-seeded Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the second round of the Legg Mason Classic on Wednesday.

Muller, who lost to Lleyton Hewitt in last year’s championship final, will next face Arnaud Clement of France after he defeated Britain’s Richard Bloomfield 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7).

The match was the first on the ATP Tour for Bloomfield, who was making his debut outside of Wimbledon. He battled Clement for 2 hours, 14 minutes before falling to the veteran of 407 matches.

Two other seeded players, 12th-seeded Karol Beck of Slovakia and 15th-seeded Ricardo Mello of Brazil, also fell. Robby Ginepri defeated Beck 6-3, 6-4, while Bobby Reynolds defeated Mello 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Eight of the 16 seeded players were eliminated through the first two rounds

Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, the 13th seed, defeated Paul Goldstein 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Srichaphan will meet Wesley Moodie of South Africa in the third round of the US Open series event.

Unseeded James Blake, the 2002 tournament champion, beat fourth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Blake will face another player from the Czech Republic, 16th-seeded Thomas Zib, in the third round.

It was Blake’s third win in four career matchups with the 18th-ranked Stepanek.

”He’s top 20 in the world for a reason,” Blake said. ”I definitely didn’t think it was going to be easy.

Muller, who lost to Lleyton Hewitt in last year’s championship match here, will next face Arnaud Clement of France.

Clement and Muller have faced each other twice previously, with Clement winning both matches last year. But Muller, who evened his 2005 record at 17-17 with Wednesday’s victory, said he was approaching Thursday’s contest with more confidence.

”I have a lot of respect for him, but now is a different time,” said Muller, who advanced to the final of last week’s Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles before falling to Andre Agassi.

”I’ve improved a lot, and I know I can beat him. I’m not scared of him.”

In other second-round play, eighth-seeded Sebastien Grosjean of France beat Alexander Popp of Germany 6-2, 6-3; and 14th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina defeated America’s Brian Baker 6-3, 6-3. – Sapa-AP