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Kuerten ousted in second round of Mercedes Cup
Two matches in one day proved too much for Gustavo Kuerten. The defending champion crashed out of the Mercedes Cup when he lost to Germany's Lars Burgsmueller 7
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:28 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Stuttgart:
Two matches in one day proved too much for Gustavo Kuerten. The defending champion crashed out of the Mercedes Cup when he lost to Germany's Lars Burgsmueller 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (4) in a second round match on Thursday. The second-seeded Brazilian had to play twice yesterday, after three days of rain at the start of the tournament had played havoc with the schedule, forcing organizers to crowd 14 matches into one day. In the morning, Kuerten had beaten Stefan Koubek 6-3, 6-3 in a match that had been postponed twice. Kuerten, a three-time French Open champion, was seeking his third title in the Mercedes Cup. Top-seeded Jiri Novak, a Czech who was a semifinalist at the Australian Open, had to play only once and eased into the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Fernando Meligeni, another Brazilian. Novak was one of the few players who had completed his first-round match before Thursday. Two other top seeded players who were once in action advanced as well. No. 3 Guillermo Canas of Argentina defeated Felix Mantilla of Spain 6-4, 6-3, and No. 4 Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco beat Johan Settergren of Sweden 6-4, 6-2. Mikhail Youzhny, a 20-year-old Russian who is the youngest player in the $500,000 clay-court event, produced two upsets in one day to advance to the quarterfinals. In the morning, Youzhny dispatched Hicham Arazi of Morocco 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and followed that up by beating sixth-seeded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-2, 6-4. Lapentti also had a three-set match in the morning in overcoming Italy's Andrea Gaudenzi. Another seeded player to fall was No.7 Rainer Schuettler of Germany, who lost to Alberto Martin of Spain. Martin won the first round match 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 and then went on to beat Adrian Voinea of Romania 6-4, 6-4. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis
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