Henman, Haas head home from Madrid
A distracted Tim Henman found the tireless Thai Paradorn Srichaphan too much of a handful in the second round of the Madrid Masters on Wednesday, the British number four seed going down to an untidy 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat.
Top seed Tommy Haas lost his place in the tournament, the defending champion having to retire while trailing 7-6, 4-1 to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro because of a blister on his hand.
Albert Costa, the sixth seed, didn't even make it on to court, as a back injury forced him to withdraw from his match against Nicolas Lapentti.
Andy Roddick, Sjeng Schalken and Guillermo Canas also fell in early games as the surprises continued to come thick and fast in a tournament that lost third seed Marat Safin in the final match up on centre court late on Tuesday night.
In Wednesday's night session, a fanatical crowd roared Alex Corretja on to a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over ninth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
"It's not often you see a crowd getting so involved in a first-round match," said Corretja. "It was like a Davis Cup match out there."
Spanish wildcard Feliciano Lopez then created another late night upset with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 win over 16th seed Younes El Aynaoui.
Andre Agassi ensured there was some order in the draw, the number two seed seeing off fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-4, 6-4 in his first match since losing the U.S. Open final to Pete Sampras.
Roger Federer, the Swiss 12th seed, had a similarly easy victory, 6-4 6-2 over Marcelo Rios, 11th seed Jiri Novak sped to a 6-1 6-1 win over Tommy Robredo, while 15th seed Thomas Johansson beat Magnus Norman 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Swedish battle.
The centre-court programme on day three began with Henman's defeat to Paradorn, who had shown just how dangerous he could be with an emphatic victory against Gustavo Kuerten on Tuesday.
The British number one clearly had the impending birth of his first child on his mind as he let slip a 2-0 lead in the final set to lose in one hour 58 minutes.
INEVITABLE DISTRACTION
"I was a little distracted -- that's inevitable," Henman shrugged. "That's not to make excuses, though, because Paradorn is playing as well as anyone at the moment."
Defeat for Henman was a potential hammer blow to his chances of making the end-of-season Masters Cup in Shanghai, with the Briton going into this week's indoor tournament in fifth place in the Champions Race, with the top seven set to qualify.
Federer, Haas, Roddick and Novak were all breathing down his neck with three weeks to go in the regular season but fortunately for the Briton only Federer and Novak were able to take advantage.
Federer, in seventh place at the start of the week, showed he could be a real danger with a classy victory over Rios.
The Swiss was 2-0 down in the first set but he roared back, taking advantage of a lapse in concentration from his opponent after he had become involved in an exchange with the umpire.
"I'm in the highest ranking position of my career and I'm enjoying my tennis," Federer said.
"It would be a huge step forward for me to make it to Shanghai."
Johansson's win over Norman, coupled with Costa's forced withdrawal, revived the Swede's hopes of making Shanghai.
Johansson, ranked 14th going into this week, needs to overtake Costa, in eighth, to take the final place for the top ranked grand slam winner out of the top seven but in the top 20.
Earlier report:
Safin defeat caps eventful second day in Madrid
