Second and third seeds knocked out

Thomas Johansson and Fabrice Santoro, the second and third seeds, lost their quarter-final matches in dramatically contrasting styles at the Indian Open on Friday.

Top-seeded doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi scored a walkover win, filling up the last semi-final doubles slot, as Juan Balcells (ESP) hurt his wrist during practice, and was unable to play.

While Sweden's Johansson let his unfancied Thai opponent Paradorn Srichaphan bounce back from a one-set deficit and race away to a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win, Frenchman Santoro played one of his best matches in recent years.

Santoro saved seven match points before a tiring Karol Kucera put away a delicate volley to win 6-2 6-7 7-6 in two hours and 56 minutes.

"It was a good match to lose and one of my best matches in quite some time and it was very hard physically because in the first week of the year my body was not fully prepared for such a tough match," Santoro said.

Slovakian Kucera, who struggled with a wrist injury and missed a large part of last season, said he felt drained but relieved after his seventh career win in nine meetings over the French doubles specialist.

"It's a pity that I made it so hard for myself, because I could have won it fairly easily in two sets 6-2 6-4 when I had those match points in the 10th game," he said

"But Fabrice hit a couple of good shots and it was 5-5 and in the end I was just taking care of myself physically and not worrying about the points."

Santoro, played like a man possessed in the second set, repeatedly pulling in the gangling Slovak to the net with delicate drops before passing him with precise lobs.

He saved two match points when Kucera was serving for the match in the second set then followed up with a couple of breathtaking double-handed passing shots to hang on, before finally serving out the tie-break 11-9.

The two players, thriving on adrenalin and a wildly cheering crowd of a few hundred fans on the outside court, then slugged it out in the decider, trading a break each before Kucera forced Santoro to dig even deeper in the 10th game with a series of rifled returns that gave him three match points.

"I guess the turning point in the match was the eighth match point that he won," a smiling Santoro said after forcing the match into the second tie-break, which he finally lost 5-7.

"After the injuries last year, this win is good because it helps my confidence ahead of the Australian Open and the rest of the season and though I am feeling completely drained today, I feel physically and mentally strong now and it is a point in my career when I can come back."

Earlier, top seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina powered into the semifinals 7-5 1-1 when his Czech opponent Jiri Vanek retired after a painful back spasm forced him off court. Thai Srichaphan will meet fourth-seeded Romanian Andrei Pavel, who won the day's last match by easily beating Spaniard Alex Calatrava 7-6 6-1.