MARSEILLE, France, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Juan Carlos Ferrero of France and
Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the top two seeds, were among those
to advance to the second round of the $476,000 Marseille Open
indoor tennis event on Wednesday.
Ferrero, like countryman Fabrice Santoro on Tuesday, did not
disappoint the home fans as he posted a 6-3, 7-5 victory over
Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland. Ferrero, playing in just his
second tournament this year after suffering a knee injury,
reached the second round at Milan two weeks ago.
Kafelnikov got past Max Mirnyi of Belarus, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
Third seed Sebastien Grosjean of France is facing Noam Okun of
Israel and fourth-seed Thomas Johansson of Sweden is facing Greg
Rusedski of Britain.
Fifth-seeded Tim Henman of Britain pulled out of the tournament
with gastroenteritis. Henman was coming off a loss to Thomas
Enqvist in a Davis Cup tie with Sweden on Sunday.
Seventh-seeded Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco retired after he was
trailing Frenchman Cedric Pioline, 4-6, 1-2. Pioline, whose
world ranking dropped from 16 to 69 last year, improved to 3-1
against El Aynaoui.
In other matches, eighth-seeded Hicham Arazi of Morocco defeated
Frenchman Lionel Roux, 7-6, 6-2 and Enqvist got by Spain's
Francisco Clavet, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
On Tuesday, Santoro, the 1999 champion here, fought off three
match points in the final set tiebreaker before defeating Sargis
Sargisian, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (13-11).
'
