Massu Shocks Costa
Three-time champion Albert Costa goes down in three sets against the in-form Chilean, but there were wins for top seeds Juan Carlos Ferrero and Guillermo Coria on Wednesday. 


Albert Costa saw his hopes of a fourth Kitzb¨¹hel title evaporate in the second round after the Spaniard suffered a three-set defeat at the hands of the in-form Nicolas Massu at the Generali Open in Wednesday.

Costa, a three-time winner in the Austrian mountains in 1995, '98-99, went down 6-7(9) 7-5, 7-6(0) in 3 hours, 33 minutes to Massu, who won last week's Amersfoort title in The Netherlands. 

Costa, the fourth seed who won his first 15 matches in Kitzb¨¹hel and was a finalist in 2001, was looking to record his first win on the ATP circuit since reaching the semifinals at Roland Garros. 

Rain break

After a rain break early in the second set, Massu eventually took it only to see Costa forge a 3-0 lead in the decider. But the Chilean hit back to take five consecutive games and served for the match at 5-4, before being broken by the former Roland Garros champion, who then led 6-5 before losing in the tie-break without winning a point. 

Massu, who defeated Raemon Sluiter to capture his second career ATP title last week, gained revenge for his loss to Costa in the third round at the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami earlier this year. The 23-year-old from Chile, who defeated Austrian Stefan Koubek in the first round, will now meet No. 14 seed Sargis Sargsian for a place in the quarterfinals after the Armenian overcame Albert Portas in straight sets.

Meanwhile, top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero survived a close encounter against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco to move through to the third round. Ferrero, last year's runner-up to Alex Corretja, finally emerged with a 7-6(3), 7-6(2) victory over the 19-year-old from Madrid, who led 5-2 in the first set and was 4-3 up with a break in the second. 

Ferrero will move to first position in the ATP Champions Race 2003 if he wins his next match to reach the quarterfinals, and could take over Andre Agassi's No. 1 ATP Entry Ranking if he wins the tournament. He now meets No. 15 seed Flavio Saretta after the Brazilian recorded a 7-6(3), 6-1 victory over Argentine qualifier Gaston Etlis. 

Second seed Guillermo Coria continued his impressive form with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra. Coria, who won last week's MercedesCup in Stuttgart to claim his second title of the year, reached the semifinals in Kitzb¨¹hel in 2001 (l. to Costa). 

The Argentine now meets Frenchman Olivier Mutis, who upset No. 16 seed David Sanchez in the second round. 

Elsewhere on day three, No. 7 seed Gaston Gaudio resumed his rain-interrupted second round match against Tomas Behrend and came through in straight sets to earn a third round meeting with local favorite Werner Eschauer, while Austrian wild card Alexander Peya went down 6-2, 6-3 against No. 11 seed Nikolay Davydenko. 

Juan Ignacio Chela, the No. 8 seed wasted little time in recording a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Czech qualifier Frantisek Cermak and now meets No. 10 seed Max Mirnyi, a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Luis Horna of Peru. Former champion Nicolas Lapentti also moved through, upsetting No. 6 seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:
Ferrero: "The first match is always difficult. I knew it could be a difficult match and it was. Verdasco played a good match, it was tough for me. I knew that he can play good, it¡¯s not easy to return his serve. We had practiced two or three times together. I knew he has a strong game."

About having the possibility of becoming No. 1: "It¡¯s important. This gives me a lot of motivation to play and win this tournament."

Massu: ¡°I had two set points in the first set but I couldn¡¯t take them. Maybe the rain break helped me after the first set. I was very focused in the second set. He made a lot of errors in the tie-break.

¡°It¡¯s one of the best wins in my life to beat Costa on clay. But I¡¯m not finished yet, I want to do well tomorrow.¡±

Davydenko: "I was fighting against myself, not against my opponent. I had some problems and I didn¡¯t play well. I knew that he can play better, he didn¡¯t play that well. I play all Austrian tournaments, I like it here."

Peya: "I¡¯m very disappointed. I had expected much more from myself. I went into the match with a lot of confidence. I made many easy mistakes. I didn¡¯t play too well. He is a very good tennis player, he is very solid from the baseline." 


THURSDAY PREVIEW
As the Generali Open reaches the third round stage, three of the top four clay court players on the ATP circuit in 2003 take to the courts in Kitzb¨¹hel. 

Juan Carlos Ferrero is just one match away from regaining the lead in the ATP Champions Race 2003 as he takes on Brazil's Flavio Saretta, the No. 15 seed, in the third round on Thursday. Ferrero, who will also overtake Andre Agassi at No. 1 in the ATP Entry Ranking if he wins the tournament, defeated Saretta in the semifinals in Valencia earlier this year, en route to the second of his three titles in 2003 (Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo, Valencia, Roland Garros). 

Ferrero, runner-up to Alex Corretja in Kitzb¨¹hel 12 months ago, led the ATP Champions Race for four weeks after winning his first Grand Slam title in Paris. Saretta, who also reached the quarterfinals in Delray Beach, Casablanca and St. Poelten, defeated Gaston Etlis in the second round. 

Opening proceedings on Centre Court will be former champion Nicolas Lapentti, the 2001 Kitzb¨¹hel winner who faces Nikolay Davydenko for a place in the quarterfinals. Lapentti, a finalist in Bastad two weeks ago (l. to Zabaleta), defeated Wayne Arthurs and No. 6 seed Mikhail Youzhny to reach the third round. Davydenko, the No. 11 seed who has won titles in Adelaide and Estoril this year, overcame local favorite Alexander Peya in his first match on Wednesday. 

Gaston Gaudio, the No. 7 seed who leads the ATP circuit with 32 match wins on clay this year, takes on the last remaining Austrian in the draw in Werner Eschauer, the 29-year-old who knocked out defending champion Alex Corretja in the second round to reach the last eight at an ATP tournament for the first time. Eschauer had won only three ATP matches in his career before arriving in Kitzb¨¹hel this week. Gaudio won two titles on the surface in 2002 at Barcelona and Mallorca.

Second seed Guillermo Coria, who has a 29-5 record on clay in 2003 with two titles at the Tennis Masters Hamburg and Stuttgart and a semifinal appearance at Roland Garros (l. to Verkerk), will be hoping to continue his winning streak when he meets Frenchman Olivier Mutis for the first time.