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Ferrer survives as seeds take tumble at Heineken Open

David Ferrer survived heavy attrition among seeded players as two rounds of singles were completed at the rain-affected Heineken Open tennis tournament yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand.

Top-seeded Ferrer, the defending champion, posted comfortable straight sets wins in his first and second round matches to reach the quarter-finals as upsets accounted for four of the tournament's top eight seeds.

The world fifth-ranked player beat Spanish compatriot Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 6-2 in his first round match and returned to court later in the day to beat Sergio Roitman of Argentina 6-1, 7-6 (2).

"I served very well and I'm happy with my game," Ferrer said. "I'm pleased I won two matches. The results make it look easy, but not the games."

Ferrer's quarter-final opponent today will be Frenchman Julien Benneteau who beat sixth seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in his second-round match.

Germany's Florian Mayer mixed powerful groundstrokes, deft drop shots and occasional forays to the net to upset second seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 7-6 (7).

Mayer missed an early opportunity to serve out the match but fought back in the second set tiebreak to beat his top-20 ranked opponent.

"I got a little bit tired near the end," Mayer said. "It's not normal that you get 6-3 and you're serving for the match against a top-20 player. I'm very happy I could beat this guy."

``I'm ranked outside the top 50 and it feels good to beat a guy like that. If you want to beat him you have to destroy the rhythm of his game and I managed to do that,'' he said.

Belgian Xavier Malisse beat the fifth-seed 2006 champion Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-6 (3), 6-3 in his first round match yesterday but lost 6-4, 6-4 to Chilean qualifier Nicolas Massu in the second round.

Massu faces fourth seed and former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain in the quarter-finals.

Ferrero beat Jesse Levine of the US 6-4, 6-1 and Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3, 7-6 (8) in his two matches yesterday.

Michael Llodra of France continued his good form after winning the Adelaide title at the weekend, beating eighth seed Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.

The 27-year-old Frenchman defeated Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-1, 6-4 in his first round match..

Third seed Juan Monaco of Argentina won two matches yesterday, beating veteran former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 and 2006 finalist Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-3.

Seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany also survived, beating 19-year-old Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 to earn a quarter-final clash with Mayer.
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