Safin, Moya, Nalbandian Ousted at Miami

Posted on March 28, 2005

The Nasdaq-100 Open draw in Miami was opened wide Sunday when two former No. 1s, and three of the Top 8 seeds overall were upset.

Leading the hit parade of exits was No. 3 seed Marat Safin, putting on the flippers in a second-set tank 7-6(6), 6-1, and dropping his career win-loss record to 6-7 against No. 26 seed Dominik Hrbaty.

Safin had 33 unforced errors to 11 winners. Hrbaty said beating Safin was all about taking chances.

"With Marat I was playing -- I just wanted to risk it," Hrbaty said. "Either I take all or I lose. With him, you cannot play with his kind of player just to hold the ball there and hope he miss. I tried it to, you know, to play really fast, faster than him, and maybe when you get closer to the end of the set and you get little bit nervous, then you can make mistakes...He probably, in the end of the match, he gave couple points. But it was more like he resigned because he knew that with his game he cannot win today."

No. 5 Carlos Moya was edged in three sets by No. 25 Thomas Johansson, and No. 8 David Nalbandian, apparently suffering from hepatitis, was ousted by unseeded Spaniard Dave Ferrer in straight sets.

Other winners Sunday were (13) Ivan Ljubicic (d. (21) Spadea 7-6 in the third), (29) Rafael Nadal (d. Spanish countryman Verdasco, dropping only four games), unseeded former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Andreev), and French wildcard teen Gael Monfils (d. H.-T. Lee 7-6 in the third, dropping 25 aces on the Korean).

"I felt really good today actually on the court for a set and a half," said Ljubicic on struggling with the tenacious Spadea. "And then he started to dropshot and come at the net, unusually, and play some great volleys and try to take the rhythm out, you know, the trainer and stuff. So it suddenly wasn't tennis anymore. It wasn't like easy-going. It was real difficult to hang it in there because even last half an hour was also hot."

Upsets in the first round of the doubles were orchestrated by Frenchmen Clement/Llodra (d. (4) Bryan/Bryan), Gimelstob/Rusedski (d. (6)Arthurs/Hanley 7-6 in the third), and wildcards Acasuso/Lapentti (d. (7)Paes/Zimonjic in three).

Scheduled for Monday in Miami are (4) Coria vs. (31) Dent, (9) Agassi vs. (Q) Clement, (1) Federer vs. Zabaleta, (27) Grosjean vs. (7) Gaudio, Mayer vs. (15) Gonzalez, (28) Chela vs. (6) Henman, (Q) Morrison vs. (23) Stepanek, and (18) Ancic vs. (16) Haas.