Sportstoday

November 10, 2000


Mark Philippoussis double faulted on match point tonight to crash out of the second round of the Lyon Grand Prix tennis tournament 3-6 6-3 7-5 to persistent Moroccan Hicham Arazi.

The careless loss came less than 24 hours after seventh-seed Philippoussis opened his week here with a knockout of last week's Stuttgart Masters champion Wayne Ferreira of South Africa in three hard-fought sets.

Philippoussis used his big serve to good advantage but was unable to overpower the agile Arazi, whose best performance this year was a semi-final last month in Tokyo.

The Australian got up a break in the third set only to lose it as Arazi fought back for 3-3 and got the deciding break on the final play in the 12th game.

Frenchman Arnaud Clement sprang the upset of the day as he beat fifth seed Franco Squillari, one of two Argentines to lose on the day at the Palais des Sports.

Clement, who beat Andre Agassi in the second round of the US Open, advanced to the last eight 3-6 6-2 6-3.

Dutch qualifying surprise Raemon Sluiter knocked Squillari's compatriot Mariano Puerta, 4-6 6-4 4-1 as the South American quit with a wrist injury.

The 22-year-old Sluiter had apparently taken plenty of confidence from an Amsterdam finals appearance last summer where he lost to veteran Swede Magnus Gustafsson.

``It was a smaller event there than here, but it was still a final,'' said the Rotterdam-raised player.

``I'm not surprised to be in the quarter-finals. I won some tough matches in the qualifiers and I've had time to adjust to the indoor conditions here.''

Karol Kucera of Slovakia defeated Swiss Roger Federer 3-6 6-2 6-1, and next plays either Tommy Haas or Andre Agassi tomorrow.

Federer had beaten Kucera both previous times they had played, last year in Vienna and in September at the Sydney Olympics.