Argentine Mariano Puerta came down off his French Open and Davis Cup high Thursday at the ATP stop in Kitzbuhel when the No. 2 seed was ousted in straight sets by No. 15 Victor Hanescu.
Two more seeds exited when wildcard
Nicolas Lapentti (d. (4) Gonzalez from a set down) found his old form, and (6)
Mikhail Youzhny outlasted (10)
Andrei Pavel, who retired in the second set of their encounter with heat exhaustion.
The final two homecountry Austrians were also dumped from the event when (7)
Nicolas Massu defeated
Stefan Koubek, and Spain's unseeded
Fernando Verdasco recovered from a set down to oust (9)
Jurgen Melzer in three.
Other players into the quarters were (3)
Gaston Gaudio (d. Vik), (5)
Feliciano Lopez (d. Mayer), and unseeded Argentine
Mariano Zabaleta (d. Almagro in three), following up on his earlier upset of No. 1 seed
Nikolay Davydenko.
Lining up for Friday's quarterfinals are Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. (15) Hanescu, (7) Massu vs. (WC) N.Lapentti, (3) Gaudio vs. (6) Youzhny, and Zabaleta vs. (5) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez.
