Playing a defensive match from well behind the baseline proved to be a poor choice of tactics for top seed Gustavo Kuerten, who was upset by Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-3 4-6 6-4 in the third round of the Ericsson Open last night.
"I think the match was pretty close from the beginning, so it was tough sometimes to go for my shots as I wanted to," Kuerten said. "I could have tried to go for more winners, but also when I tried to, sometimes I missed.
"It's kind of a match I didn't have too much chances to guess or to try too many things," noted the popular Brazilian who reached the final here last year.
Kuerten, who managed to put just 48 per cent of his first serves in play in the two hour encounter, saw his difficulty from the service line come back to haunt him as he tried to level the third set in the 10th game.
Serving at 4-5, Kuerten picked the wrong time to come up with a loose game as Johansson delivered a forehand winner to break the French Open champion and close out the match.
"I felt really good out there," said the 25th-ranked Johansson. "In the third (set) it was really, really tight and I was lucky to break the last game of his service.
"You go out there and you're just trying to have fun because he has all the pressure. On paper, he has to win."
This marked only the third time in the tournament's 17-year history that the top seed has not advanced at least to the fourth round. Thomas Muster lost in the second round in 1996 and Pete Sampras lost in the third round in 1998.
Switzerland's Roger Federer continued his ascent in men's tennis by posting a 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 upset of 16th seed Mark Philippoussis, an Australian who resides in Miami Beach.
The 24th-ranked Federer, who won his first career title last month at Milan and led Switzerland to a first-round Davis Cup win over the United States, was able to break Philippoussis twice in the final set - in the first and seventh games - to advance to the fourth round.
"It could have gone either way," Federer said. "I kept coming and tried my best to stay in the game. I'm happy with the way I fought today and at the end, I came up with great shots." -Reuters-