Top seed and Australian Open finalist Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis blew a mint chance to pick up valuable Race points by bowing out of Lyon in the first round Tuesday to Arnuad Clement 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 at the ATP stop in Lyon.
Bagdhatis, who is currently 10th in the Race, could have overtaken No. 8
Tommy Robredo with a Lyon title, but Clement, an Australian Open finalist himself, was having none of it.
Also Tuesday second-seeded
Gaston Gaudio was beaten 6-0, 6-2 by
Simon Greul in just 55 minutes. Greul, the winner of three ATP Challenger circuit titles in Cordoba, Dresden and Ettlingen, improves his ATP season record to 11-15.
No. 4 seed
Richard Gasquet defeated former world No. 1
Marat Safin 6-4, 7-6(5) in the marquee match of the day.
No. 3 seed
Dominik Hrbaty overcame
Florent Serra of France 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and
Dick Norman posted a 6-4, 7-5 win over Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience of France.
