MONTE CARLO, Monaco, April 16 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt fell to unseeded Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-4, 6-3, Tuesday in a rain-delayed first round match Tuesday at the $2.578 million Tennis Masters Series Monte Carlo.
Hewitt, the world's top-ranked player, has recovered wonderfully from a bout with the chicken pox in January, winning at San Jose a month later and capturing his first Tennis Masters Series event at Indian Wells in March. The 21-year-old Australian was a semifinalist two weeks ago at Miami and won 15 of his first 17 matches this season.
But he was no match for Moya, the 1998 champion, who won the first set before the rain delay, then easily closed out his opponent after the match was resumed.
Moya, who also reached the semifinals here last year, claimed his first title of 2002 in Acapulco and reached the semifinals last week at Estoril. The Spaniard avenged a loss to Hewitt and Indian Wells this year and improved to 2-2 lifetime against him.
Second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain had little trouble with Albert Portas, dispatching his countryman, 6-2, 6-2. Ferrero is a disappointing 7-8 this year. He advanced to the quarterfinals at Marseille in February, but began the claycourt season last week with a second-round defeat at Estoril.
Sixth seed Marat Safin of Russia rallied past Tommy Robredo of Spain, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, for his first win in four trips to Monte Carlo. The Australian Open finalist is coming off a quarterfinal effort in Estoril.
Hewitt had the dubious distinction of being the only seeded play to lose on Tuesday.
No. 4 seed Tim Henman of Britain defeated Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1; No. 5 Tommy Haas of Germany routed Nicolas Escude of France, 6-4, 6-2; and No. 7 Sebastien Grosjean of France ousted Australian Mark Philippoussis, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 12 Guillermo Canas of Argentina defeated Brazilian qualifier Andre Sa for the fourth time in five career meetings, 6-1, 6-0, and No. 15 Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, fresh off his win at Casablanca, bounced Agustin Calleri of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4.
Earlier, ninth seed Roger Federer of Swtizerland defeated Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4; No. 10 Andy Roddick of the United States topped Fernando Gonzalez of Chilean qualifier, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (9-7); and No. 13 Alex Corretja of Spain, the 1997 runner-up, beat American Jan-Michael Gambill, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
In a first-round match between non-seeded foes, 1997 winner Marcelo Rios of Chile routed Fabrice Santoro of France, 6-3, 6-2. Rios reached the semifinals at Miami last month.
In other matches involving unseeded players, David Balbandian defeated Rainer Schuettler, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, in a battle of Argentines; Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty toppled Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra, 6-4, 6-4, Switzerland's Michel Kratochvil ousted Bulgaria's Max Mirnyi, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4; Hungary's Attila Savolt bested Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, 6-3, 7-5; and Chile's Nicolas Massu defeated Davide Sanguinetti, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.
