Ferrero, Chileans Massu, Gonzalez Among Seeded Carnage at ATP Madrid

The casualty list was long Wednesday at the ATP Masters Series-Madrid, where six seeds were ousted in second round play, opening up the draw for the top-seeded Tim Henman and No. 3 seed Marat Safin.

Digging up the seeds at Madrid were Peru's Luis "Me So" Horna (d. (6) Ferrero, losing only four games), American Taylor Dent (d. (5) Massu in three), Spain's Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. (10) The Dominator), former No. 2-ranked Tommy Haas (d. (11) Novak), Croatian Ivan Ljubicic (d. (13) Schuettler, baking a bagel in the second set), and Austrian (Q) Stefan Koubek (d. (15) Gonzo 7-6 in the third).

"I changed the racquet, as you know," said Ferrero, who dumped his extended-length Prince, and who will fall even further than his current No. 33 ranking after this week. "This is a racquet that hits the ball very hard. Here I've had a difficult time adapting to the altitude. Depends on the day -- sometimes I play better than others. Altitude is always a little problem."

Upholding their seedings Wednesday were (1) Henman (d. Costa), (3) Safin (d. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez in three), (7) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson (d. Canas), (8) Tommy "The R." Robredo (d. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri in three), (14) Vince Spadea (d. Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal in three), and (16) Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan (d. (WC) Corretja).

"It was tough to play Alex (Corretja), especially in Spain, it's always difficult to play the old man," joked the Thai Fighter. "But I'm happy to finally have a win."

Corretja had beaten The Thai Fighter in both their previous meetings.

"My stomach was a bit delicate today," Corretja said. "I was feeling weak. I wasn't as comfortable as I would like. I wasn't moving fast. I was really feeling weak. My game was worse. It wasn't a great match. It's a pity."

Safin was 0-2 career entering the match with F-Lo before turning it around.

"I lost to him in our two other matches, both on very fast surfaces," Safin said. "He serves well, he has some huge shots, it was a difficult win for me, it was really tough."

On court Thursday in Madrid, besides the ball models, are (1) Henman vs. Ljubicic, Haas vs. Dent in a race to the net, (8) Robredo vs. Hot Sauce in an all-Spanish, (14) Spadea vs. (2) Agassi in an all-American, (Q) Koubek vs. (3) Safin, (Q) Dupuis vs. (7) Pim-Pim, Horna vs. (9) Pavel, and (4) Nalbandian vs. (16) The Thai Fighter.