Coria, Ferrero ousted from Swiss Indoors

BASEL (Switzerland)—Argentine top seed Guillermo Coria and Spanish third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered shock second round exits at the Swiss Indoors on Thursday. Coria, who is still looking to seal his place at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, lost 7-6, 7-5 to Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen.
Ferrero then suffered a similar fate, beaten 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to Coria’s compatriot Jose Acasuso. “I wanted to reach at least the quarter-finals or semi-finals here in order to get some confidence,” Coria said. “I felt mentally good enough to achieve that. Now I have to go to (next week’s Masters Series tournament in) Paris where the conditions are completely different”. Looking out of sorts throughout his meeting with the world number 131, Coria failed to take a single point during the first set tiebreak. The 2004 French Open finalist and world number seven did manage a break of serve in the second set’s opening game — only to surrender his own subsequent service game with the help of two double faults.
Coria then saved two match points at 4-5, but conceded the match two games later with a wildly over-hit forehand. “I have to get my confidence back and win at least two matches in Paris,” Coria said. “It’s not going to be easy to reach the Masters Cup with Davydenko, Ljubicic and Nalbandian also in contention”. No longer himself in the running for the Masters Cup, Ferrero seemed set to claw his way back against Acasuso after defending a match point in the second set tiebreak. Acasuso responded well to dropping the set, breaking the former world number one early in the third to take a 2-0 lead which he never relinquished. Slovakian fifth seed Dominik Hrbaty also faced a tough time on Thursday but managed to come from behind to beat Argentina’s Agustin Calleri 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.—Agencies