World number one Andre Agassi crashed out of the Masters Series event yesterday in Rome when he was beaten 6-4, 6-4 in the third round by 15th seeded Slovak Dominik Hrbaty.
The top seeded American was under constant pressure from Hrbaty, a losing finalist at last month's Masters Series event at Monte Carlo - also on clay, and put on an erratic centre-court performance.
For Hrbaty, it was sweet revenge after Agassi beat him in the semifinals of the 1999 French Open, on the American's way to the title.
Agassi was 40-0 down on his own serve in the eight game of the first set, and risked a 5-3 deficit.
He rallied to deuce with a majestic backhand winner, and then reached the safety of 4-4 with a crunching service winner.
But there was no escaping the Slovak's forehand in the 10th game. And the same game proved fatal in the second set when the world number one started out by planting an overhead smash into the net and netting his next point.
A ballooned shot handed Hrbaty a 40-0 lead and, after managing a service winner, Agassi summed up his afternoon by double-faulting to concede the match.
Hrbaty now meets either Spaniard Alex Corretja or Frenchman Fabrice Santoro in the last eight.
Argentina's Mariano Puerta added another seeded scalp to his collection, upsetting Spanish hope Juan Carlos Ferrero.
He will be joined in the quarters by defending champion Gustavo Kuerten, who progressed without hitting a ball after his Moroccan opponent Younes El Aynaoui withdrew with a heel injury.
Meanwhile, Martina Hingis faced her first severe test this week as she struggled yesterday to overcome Croatia's Sylvija Talaja and reach the quarter-finals of the $1.08 million German Open WTA event in Berlin. The top seed was forced to save two set points before winning 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Talaja kept her composure when Hingis broke to lead 5-3. The number 12 seed immediately broke back, and then broke again to lead 6-5 when Hingis carelessly sent a backhand long when under no real pressure. Talaja then held two set points, but made errors on both before Hingis broke and then won the tie-break with ease.
Hingis admitted that she wanted to avoid the upset bug that saw eight of the 16 seeds lose before the third round. "Yesterday so many favourite players lost, like Anna (Kournikova), (Amelie) Mauresmo, (Nathalie) Tauziat," she said.
