Ferrero, Safin, Rusedski out of World Indoors

Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered a shock 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 defeat to France's Nicolas Escude on Wednesday, while Marat Safin was dumped out of the World Indoor tournament by inspired Czech Bohdan Ulihrach.

In the only second round match of the day, Ulihrach produced a fluent display to knock out Australian Open runner-up Safin 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Frenchman Arnaud Clement ended Greg Rusedski's title hopes with a 6-3, 7-6 first round win.

Defending champion Escude, the losing finalist in Marseille last week, raced into a 5-2 lead in the first set as Spaniard Ferrero struggled to come to terms with the indoor surface.

But the Spanish claycourter, dictating terms from the baseline, clawed his way back to take the opening set 7-5 after winning five games in a row.

However the Spaniard's hold on the match was short-lived as from 1-1 in the second, an increasingly frustrated Ferrero failed to win another game as Escude powered his way to victory by taking the second and third sets 6-1 6-0.

"I started playing really well at 5-2 down to win the (first) set but the match changed around completely in the second," said Ferrero, who also lost in the first round last year.

"I started to make a lot of mistakes while Escude was playing good tennis and was attacking my second serve all the time," Ferrero, ranked third in the world on the ATP entry system rankings, said.

OUTSTANDING WIN

Ulihrach's outstanding win over third-seeded Russian Safin, a semifinalist in Rotterdam three years ago, made him the first player to reach the quarter-finals.

"He was just too good for me today," Safin said.

"It's a little difficult to play him as you've got to keep up with him. But today I just did not play any great tennis."

The 26-year-old Czech, who had never made it past the second round in five previous attempts, surprised Safin with the ferocity of his serves.

Although Safin won the first set with the loss of only one game, he never looked comfortable and made numerous unforced errors throughout the match.

After taking the second set 6-3 Ulihrach, ranked 39 in the world, sensed he had the match within his grasp. He stepped up the pressure in the third set and took it 6-2 to secure a clash with either sixth seed Tim Henman or France's Fabrice Santoro.

Safin and Ferrero joined Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic as the seeds to have been knocked out of the tournament so far.

BREAK POINTS

Earlier, both Clement and Rusedski struggled with their serves in early exchanges and had to save several break points in the opening games.

But Clement, ranked 45 in the entry system and runner-up at the 2001 Australian Open, made the breakthrough in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead, as he left Rusedski stranded at the net with his stinging passing shots, and clinched the set 6-3.

In the second set, the 28-year-old Briton failed to convert the only break point in the second game when his service return clipped the top of the net and rolled back to his side of the court.

Nerves kicked in during the tiebreak as both players gifted each other points but Clement clinched the match after Rusedski netted a volley.

"I went for my shots but must have missed about 10 or 15 big points by about an inch today and that was the key," said Rusedski, who was suffering from flu.

Clement will meet Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson in the second round.

Seventh seed Roger Federer, runner-up last year, faces Dutch wildcard John van Lottum later on Wednesday to start his Rotterdam title bid.

The Swiss started the 2002 season by winning in Sydney and was a finalist in Milan earlier this month, while Van Lottum is the last home player left in the draw.

Max Mirnyi of Belarus was a 6-3 6-2 winner over Czech Jiri Novak.

Thomas Enqvist, who won his 19th career title in Marseille, takes on Romanian Andrei Pavel in a late evening match.