Looking rusty on court and playing well below his level, former top 10 player Paradorn lost the first set tie-breaker 7-6 (7-3) before suffering a bagel (6-0) defeat in the second, making this his fourth straight first round loss.

After making it to the quarter-finals in Sydney and then being forced to pull out with injury, Paradorn's season since on the ATP tour has ended in the first round, starting from the Australian Open, then in Marseilles and last week in Rotterdam.

Interestingly, he squandered leads in three of those four defeats, having match points against Nicolas Kiefer in Melbourne and Arvind Parmar in Holland. But he blew all those chances to win, as he did with Blake yesterday.

A break in the eighth game gave Paradorn a 5-3 lead. Serving for the set, Paradorn had two set points to close out the opener, but missed his chance as Blake broke for 4-5.

He had three more chances at 5-4 and 6-5 but could not capitalise on them. The Thai ended up losing the tie-break and was never in control again.

Unseeded Paul Goldstein defeated fourth-seeded Robby Ginepri.

The match was tied at one set apiece on Monday when it was halted because of rain. Goldstein took the third set on Tuesday to win 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-1.

"I've never beaten No 16 in the world before," Goldstein, who is ranked 73rd, said of Ginepri, who is actually ranked No 19. "I had confidence that I could win points playing the style I am comfortable playing."

Second-seeded Nicolas Kiefer and two "lucky losers" were among the first-round winners earlier Tuesday.

Kiefer, from Germany, defeated Sargis Sargsian of Armenia 6-3 6-2. Brian Vahaly defeated Sam Querrey 3-6 7-6 (3) 6-3, and Peter Luczak of Australia beat

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4 7-6 (7).

Vahaly and Luczak were qualifying round finalists who lost on Monday but replaced injured players via a random draw.

Seeded players who advanced to the second round were Kiefer and No 3 Tommy Robredo of Spain. They join No 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, who was victorious on Monday, as the

 remaining seeded players after one round.

Robredo defeated Andy Murray of Britain 6-2 6-2. In other first-round matches, Julien Benneteau of France beat Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4 7-6 (0); Vincent Spadea defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-3 6-2; Ivo Karlovic of Croatia topped Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 6-2 6-4; Mardy Fish defeated Prakash Amritraj of India 6-4 7-6 (4); and Jan Hernych of Czechoslovakia bat Kristian Pless of Denmark 6-3 6-3

Meanwhile in Florida, Thailand's Montinee Tangphong needed three hours and 45 minutes to win her first round match against Christina Wheeler of Australia 6-7 (7-2) 6-4 6-4 in the US$25,000 Sheriff Jim Coats Clearwater Tennis Tournament at the Henry L McMullen Tennis Complex in Florida on Tuesday.

But countrywoman Napaporn Tongsalee had a bad day, losing to America's sixth-seeded Tiffany Dabek 6-4 6-2. Monthinee next plays fifth-seeded Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina, a former French Open semi-finalist.

The Nation, Agencies

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