Third seed Nieminen joins Kitzbuehel exodus

KITZBUEHEL, Austria, July 27 (Reuters) Finnish third seed Jarkko Nieminen made a surprise third round exit from the 5,000 Kitzbuehel Open today, losing 6-2 4-6 6-3 to German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The result left the claycourt tournament without any of its top three seeds following the second round departures of Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Spain's Tommy Robredo yesterday.

Nieminen's loss was all the more unexpected given the fact that he had beaten 13th seed Kohlschreiber in all four of their previous meetings this season.

The 1999 US Open junior champion, who has taken just 14 months to rise from world number 100 to his current ranking of 15th, was clearly second best today.

He wilted in the high temperatures and under sustained pressure from the attack-minded Kohlschreiber.

''Jarkko and I are good friends off the court and when we were drawn against each other again, he joked that we would have to start playing at different tournaments,'' Kohlschreiber said.

''The high altitude conditions here are great for my game though as I like to play with a lot of top spin and aggression. With the top three seeds going out, the tournament's looking really open now.'' Defending champion and fourth seed Gaston Gaudio is now the highest ranked player still involved in the competition.

The Argentine world number 16 is set to take on Germany's Denis Gremelmayr for a place in the quarter-finals later today.

REUTERS DH PM1942