Paes crashes out

Indian ace Leander Paes fell at the first hurdle in the Tata Open ATP champions race 2002. He was beaten by last year's finalist Andrei Stoliarov of Russia 6-3, 6-1 at the Nungambakkam stadium in Chennai on Monday.

In another match, Slovak fifth seed Dominic Hrbaty became the first seeded player to make it to the pre-quarter-finals after scoring an easy 6-1, 6-4 first round victory over unseeded German Axel Pretzsch, ranked 106.

"Dominator" Hrbaty surely was in the first set, dropping just one game. He broke the young German in the fourth and sixth games for a 5-1 lead after surviving a break point in the fifth game. All that Axel could offer in the first set was the second game which saw him draw level 1-1.

In the second set, games went with serve till 4-4. In the ninth game, however, Axel erred badly on his returns. Hrbaty broke him to lead 5-4 and held serve to romp home victor at 6-4.

The Tata Open 2002 - Complete Coverage