French Champ Costa Ousted, Spaniards Struggle at ATP Barcelona

A Spaniard could perhaps begrudgingly concede a loss to a serve-and-volleyer on clay of the status of former No. 1s such as John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg or even Pete Sampras, but...Max "The Beast" Mirnyi?

That was the difficult-to-swallow scenario facing former French Open champion Albert Costa Monday after a 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-6(2) loss to the Beast of Belarus on a day Spaniards posted a disappointing 3-4 record at their home event.

"I missed my chance in the first set and should have won that one," said Costa, who won a set off Mirnyi for the first time in three meetings. "I did well to fight back in the third, but it was very difficult to deal with a player like him in the tiebreak and he handled it extremely well."

Seeded winners on the day were (9) Thomas Johansson (d. Koubek, dropping only three games), (10) Dominik Hrbaty (d. Haehnel 1-and-1), (12) Feliciano Lopez (d. Spanish countryman Almagro), and (15) Paradorn Srichaphan (d. Carlsen in a battle of the clay-impaired).

Argentine Juan Monaco orchestrated the lone upset on the day, outlasting (16) Igor Andreev in three sets.

Other un-seeds into the second round Monday were Argentine Jose Acasuso (d. (WC) Vicente), Swiss qualifier Stanislas Wawrinka (d. Spaniard Garcia-Lopez), Dutchman Peter Wessels (d. Saulnier), Italy's Potito Starace (d. (Q) Gabashvili 1-and-1), Spaniards Felix Mantilla (d. Llodra) and qualifier Francisco Fogues (d. C.Rochus in three), Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. Kohlschreiber), and Fin qualifier Jarkko Nieminen (d. H.-T. Lee).

On tap for Tuesday on the dirt in Barcelona are (Q) Albert "The Dropshot Dragon" Portas vs. (14) Juan Ignacio "The Spitting Snake" Chela, Montanes vs. the former No. 1 Ferrero in an always-testy all-Spanish, (Q) Nieminen vs. the dethroned (3) "King" Carlos Moya, (13) Ferrer vs. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco in another all-ESP, (7) Davydenko vs. (Q) Fogues, El Aynaoui vs. A.Martin, Calleri vs. (Q) Zouhir, Xavier "X-Man" Malisse vs. (9) T.Johansson, Juan "The Principality" Monaco vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, (11) Stepanek vs. Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze, (WC) "Ernest & Julio" Galo Blanco vs. Ventura, (WC) M.Lopez vs. Muller, Arthurs vs. (Q) Ramirez Hidalgo, and (WC) Murray vs. Hernych.