Friday, Oct. 8, 2004

The Associated Press Gilles Muller of Luxembourg upset second-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4 Thursday to book his berth at the Japan Open quarterfinals.

Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt also advanced after rallying from a first set loss to defeat Japan's Takao Suzuki, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4.

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova had little trouble overcoming France's Youlia Fedossova, 6-3, 6-4 to book her place in the women's semifinals.

Muller, seeded 16th, used solid groundstrokes and a powerful serve to eliminate his higher ranked opponent in a match that lasted over two hours at Ariake Colosseum.

"He played extremely well from the baseline and his serves were very good," said Nalbandian. "I don't have much confidence in my game at the moment and don't think I've played enough recently."

Muller will face Taylor Dent in the quarterfinals after the American beat Lee Hyung Taik of South Korea 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-3.

Hewitt, the 2001 champion, shrugged off the loss in the first-set tiebreaker.

"I was just trying to stay motivated," said Hewitt, who reached the final of the U.S. Open last month. "I was able to break serve early in the second set and that was key to getting control of the match."

The Australian meets Cyril Saulnier in the final eight after the Frenchman defeated Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5).

The top-seeded and defending champion Sharapova will face Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn in the semifinals.

Tamarine, who upset American Jill Craybas in the second round, was a 6-1, 3-0 winner over Hungary's Aniko Kapros, who retired in the second set with a strained right thigh.

American Mashona Washington also advanced to the semifinals, beating Russia's Evgenia Linetskaya 6-2, 6-1.

Washington will face seventh-seeded Klara Koukalova in the next round. Koukalova was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova.

In other men's third round matches, No. 4 Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand advanced to the quarterfinals after a 6-3, 4-1 win over Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli, who was forced to retire in the second set with an undisclosed injury.

Srichaphan will face fifth-seeded Jiri Novak in the quarterfinals. Novak player posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Brazil's Ricardo Mello.

Bjorn Phau of Germany downed American Jan-Michael Gambill, 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 6-2. Phau faces Bohdan Ulihrach in the quarterfinals, after the Czech cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Germany's Michael Kohlmann.

LYON (AP) Hicham Arazi of Morocco upset defending champion and second-seeded Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 Wednesday in the first round of the $ 980,000 Lyon Open.

The loss marked the fifth time in six events -- including the Olympics -- that 15th-ranked Schuettler has failed to advance beyond the first round of an event.

U.S. Open semifinalist Joachim Johansson, seeded fourth, beat Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-3.

Advancing with second-round victories were seventh-seeded Vincent Spadea, Jonas Bjorkman, Xavier Malisse and Robin Soderling.

FILDERSTADT, Germany (AP) Two-time major finalist Elena Dementieva joined the parade of seeded players upset at the Porsche Grand Prix, losing 6-0, 7-5 to American qualifier Lisa Raymond on Wednesday.

She's among four seeded players eliminated in the first round, including No. 7 Nadia Petrova, beaten 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) by Jelena Jankovic.k

Lindsay Davenport breezed past Alicia Molik of Australia 6-1, 6-0 in the second round.

We welcome your opinions. Click to send a message to the editor.