Karlovic ousted at Open de Moselle tennis

Oct 1, 2008 - 11:14 PM METZ, France (Ticker) -- Ivo Karlovic still cannot figure out Carlos Moya.

The top-seeded Croat was upset by Moya, 6-3, 7-6 (6-3), on Wednesday in the second round of the $375,000 Open de Moselle.

A former No. 1, Moya improved to 4-0 lifetime against Karlovic, the ATP leader in aces this year. The 32-year-old Spaniard advanced to the quarterfinals, where he will take on fifth-seeded Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who ousted Argentine Jose Acasuso, 6-2, 6-2, earlier Wednesday.

Karlovic was fortunate to even reach the second round. He was in danger of dropping his first-round match to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who was leading, 6-4, 1-2, when he was forced to retire with a back injury.

Karlovic's defeat means that the top three seeds have now been eliminated. Second seed Gilles Simon and No. 3 Nicolas Almagro were ousted Tuesday.

While Karlovic fired 18 aces to Moya's five, the Spaniard dropped just six points on serve and recorded the only break in the 71-minute match.

In Wednesday's other second-round encounter, Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic ousted Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-4, 6-4.

First-round play was completed Wednesday with one seed advancing and another falling.

No. 7 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 win over France's Julien Benneteau, but No. 6 Andreas Seppi of Italy was bounced by French qualifier Adrian Mannarino, 6-4 6-2.

Wednesday's other first-round winners were South African qualifier Rik de Voest, who defeated Frenchman Arnaud Clement, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, and Frenchman Michael Llodra, who won a marathon first-set tiebreaker en route to a 7-6 (13-11), 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 victory over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

First prize is $85,500.