Moya and Baghdatis suffer early Vienna exits

VIENNA, Oct 9 (Reuters) Carlos Moya and Marcos Baghdatis both crashed out in the first round of the Vienna Open.

Sixth seeded Spaniard Moya was beaten 7-6 5-7 6-2 by local favourite Stefan Koubek while Cypriot eighth seed Baghdatis went down to Italy's Andreas Seppi in a surprisingly one-sided 6-2 6-2 defeat yesterday.

Vienna resident Koubek came through a nervy opening set in which each player twice traded breaks.

The Austrian world number 60 powered ahead in the subsequent tiebreak before breaking in front once again in the second set, only to let a 4-2 lead slip in the closing stages.

The third set began with another Koubek break and this time the Austrian held on, using a string of well hit passing shots to finally frustrate the world number 15.

Seppi made much lighter work of his win over Baghdatis -- breaking the 2006 Australian Open finalist four times without reply.

In an error-strewn display, the Cypriot world number 21 surrendered the first break with a wide forehand shot in the third game.

He then double-faulted in the seventh game to hand Seppi a further break point, which the Italian promptly converted before serving out to love to clinch the opening set.

Any hopes of a trademark Baghdatis fight-back proved misplaced.

Leading 40-0 in the penultimate game of the match, the Cypriot dropped five consecutive points to put the result beyond doubt.

Seppi, who is currently ranked 73rd in the world, has been rewarded with a second round tie against Dutch world number 103 Robin Haase.

Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic began his bid for a hat-trick of Vienna Open titles with a 6-4 7-5 win over Austrian qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer.

Ljubicic, a former world number three who has slipped to 13th in the rankings after a disappointing 2007, showed that his impressive service game has not deserted him, firing up 15 aces to his opponent's three.

Ljubicic is now due to face Jiri Vanek after the Czech saw off Ljubicic's compatriot, qualifier Roko Karanusic, 6-7 6-4 7-6.

Tournament top seed Novak Djokovic begins his campaign today in a first round encounter with American Robby Ginepri.

REUTERS TB AS0448