Fish upset victim at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- American Mardy Fish on Wednesday became the first Top Eight men's player beaten at this year's Australian Open.

Alejandro Falla eliminated Fish, seeded eighth, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) in a grueling three-hour, second-round match. Falla finished off five of his six break-point chances and capitalized on Fish's 58 unforced errors.

The tournament has basically played to form through the first three days, with Fish's loss the only upset of a seeded men's player Wednesday.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal was a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 winner over Tommy Haas, countering 17 unforced errors with 36 winners. Nadal did drop serve twice but spread six service breaks over the three sets.

Roger Federer, the No. 3-ranked player, advanced on a walkover when Andreas Beck was unable to play due to a back injury and seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych dominated the first two sets in a 6-1, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) win over Olivier Rochus.

No. 10-seeded Nicolas Almagro topped Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 while 11th-seeded Juan Martin del Potro bettered Blaz Kavcic 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. Alexandr Dolgopolov, the 13th seed, advanced with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 win over Tobias Kamke and 16th-seeded John Isner got past David Nalbandian 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 10-8.

Other seeded players advancing were No. 18 Feliciano Lopez, 30th-seeded Kevin Anderson and No. 21 Stanislas Wawrinka, whose four-set win over Marcos Baghdatis was marked by a display in which Baghdatis sat court side and smashed four rackets.

Unseeded players headed to the third round after Wednesday's play include Bernard Tomic, Ivo Kalovic, Lukas Lacko, Lu Yen-Hsun and Philipp Kohlschreiber.