Sport - Tennis

Portas & Arazi crash out

BARCELONA April 22 . Spanish No. 13 seed Albert Portas and Morocco's 10th seeded Hicham Arazi were both early casualties on the opening day of the Barcelona Open today. Portas went down 7-5, 6-3 to fellow Spaniard Alberto Martin in the opening match on centre court while Arazi quickly followed him out of the tournament, losing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Croatian qualifier Zeljko Krajan.

As a day of upsets continued, wildcard Marc Lopez unseated fellow Spanish teenager Tommy Robredo 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to set up a second-round clash with tournament favourite Lleyton Hewitt.

Lopez, 19, won an exhausting contest in two hours 26 minutes, as Robredo, who played in Spain's Davis Cup defeat to the United States earlier this month, wilted in the final set.

``It's one of the happiest days of my life in sporting terms,'' Lopez told reporters after the game. ``It's the first time I've played in the main draw in this tournament and the win means a lot to me.

``I'll approach the next game with a lot of respect for Hewitt, but with a huge desire to do well.''

The results:

Alberto Martin bt Albert Portas 7-5, 6-3; Zeljko Krajan bt Hicham Arazi 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Marc Lopez bt Tommy Robredo 2-6, 6-3, 7-5; Juan Ignacio Chela bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-4.

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