JOHANNESBURG: Defending champion Feliciano Lopez was among four seeded players who lost at the SA Tennis Open Wednesday, going down 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (8) to Frank Dancevic of Canada in the first round. Third-seeded Janko Tipsarevic and seventh-seeded Rainer Schuettler were also beaten in the opening round, while eighth-seeded Michal Przysiezny was downed in straight sets by South Africa's Rik de Voest in the second round. That leaves only two seeded players – No. 4 Kevin Anderson and No. 6 Adrian Mannarino – still standing in Johannesburg. Lopez saved three match points against the unseeded Dancevic in the deciding tiebreaker, but then sent a simple backhand on his only matchpoint into the net with Dancevic out of position. The Canadian rallied to win it 10-8. Lopez failed to convert any of his 10 breakpoint opportunities. Earlier, Schuettler, like Lopez and Tipsarevic, wasted an early lead for the German to fall 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Go Saeda of Japan. Jesse Huta Galung of the Netherlands, ranked No. 120, ousted the No. 51-ranked Tipsarevic 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a rain-delayed match held over from Tuesday. Huta Galung's joy was short-lived as he then lost to India's Somdev Devvarman in the second round in his second match on day three. Dudi Sela of Israel got past Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in another first-round match held over from Tuesday and South African wild card Fritz Wolmarans hit 25 aces to beat Dutch player Igor Sijsling 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Slovakia's Karol Beck recorded a straight sets win over Brian Dabul of Argentina for a place in the second round before the seeded players tumbled. De Voest, another South African wild card entrant, was 4-1 down in the second set against Przysiezny before rallying for a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Pole to reach the last eight. Cilic advances Top-seeded Marin Cilic from Croatia advanced to the quarterfinals of the Zagreb Indoors after defeating Igor Kunitsyn from Russia 7-6 (3), 6-2. Earlier, fifth-seeded German Florian Mayer also advanced by overcoming Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic 7-6 (3), 6-3. Third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain made it to the last eight by beating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. In first-round matches, Ukraine's Illya Marchenko defeated Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-2 and France's Arnaud Clement defeated Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3. Nalbandian prevails Top-seeded David Nalbandian beat fellow Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in just under two hours in the first round of the Movistar Open. In other matches, Portugal's Rui Machado ousted Felipe Rios of Chile 6-2, 6-0 and Colombian Santiago Giraldo, seeded eighth, came from a set down to defeat Facundo Bagnis of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Joao Souza of Brazil edged Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-5, and Brazilian Caio Zampieri progressed with a tight 7-6 (7), 7-5 win over Nicolas Massu of Chile.
