HOLDER Wayne Ferreira crashed out of the £500,000 Lyon men's tennis tournament yesterday, losing to Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui in his first match since a knee operation last month. The third-seeded South African Ferreira, who beat world number one Pete Sampras in last year's final, but has since had surgery on his right knee after the US Open, was beaten 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 by the Moroccan.
"I had an up and down season. I either lose in the first round or ended up in the final," El Aynaoui said afterwards.
Another former winner of the Lyon tournament, Switzerland's Marc Rosset, also lost in the first round. Rosset, who won here in 1990 and 1994, was beaten by Czech Petr Korda 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the second seed, struggled before dismissing Czech Daniel Vacek 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in his first match on French soil since winning the French Open in June.
If seeds suffered, it was a good day for qualifiers with four of them, Slovak Karol Kucera, Russian Andrei Chesnokov, Italian Gianluca Pozzi and Frenchman Lionel Roux easing into the second round.
