ACAPULCO, Mexico(AP) Two-time event winner Carlos Moya lost 6-4, 7-5 to 110th-ranked Leonardo Mayer of Argentina at the Mexican Open on Wednesday.
Moya, the No. 8 seed, squandered four break chances. Moya made only half of his first serves and was broken once in each set to bow out in the second round for the second year in a row.
Mayer, playing his sixth match on the main tour, will meet either second-seeded Gael Monfils or Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.
Defending champion Nicolas Almagro endured more than 2 1/2 hours on clay to reach the quarterfinals.
Almagro hit 18 aces to Potito Starace's three but went serve for serve with the Italian before finishing off a 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-3 win. Almagro made the decisive break for a 4-2 lead in the third set.
It was a tough match,'' fourth-seeded Almagro said.I played a good first set and a better tiebreak than him. In the second set I couldn't take advantage of the early break I had in the second set. I'm still not playing as good as last year but am getting better each match.''
In his fourth successive quarterfinals in Acapulco, Almagro will play Spanish countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Two other Spanish seeds also lost; Gimeno-Traver ousted No. 6 Albert Montanes 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), and Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina beat No. 7 Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-3.
In the women's draw, both of the Bogota finalists last weekend were ousted.
Eighth-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who won her first WTA title in Bogota, was tripped up by Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 for a third time, while fifth-seeded Gisela Dulko, the Bogota runner-up, was upset by Maret Ani of Estonia 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Iveta Benesova, the champion five years ago, survived Klara Zakopalova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), in an all-Czech match, but two more seeds exited in the second round.
Third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro, the Australian Open quarterfinalist, lost to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5, and seventh-seeded Tathiana Garbin withdrew with an abdominal strain before her match against Mathilde Johansson of France. Johansson will play Benesova in the quarterfinals.