Paradorn squandered a set point at 5-4 in the first set before losing tamely to the Belgian for the first time. The pair met previously in 2001 in Tashkent where the Thai had prevailed in three sets.

Paradorn started the match strongly, holding his serve and earning a couple of chances to break at 2-1, but some good serves from Malisse prevented the Belgian from going 3-1 down.

Both players held their service games to ensure the set went into a tie-break, although the Belgian had to come back from a set point in the ninth game to do so.

In the tie-break, Malisse stepped up a gear forcing the impatient Paradorn into making a string of errors, finally taking the first set with a blistering ace.

In the second set Malisse kept up the pressure forcing Paradorn on to his weaker backhand. Subsequent errors saw the Thai drop a vital service game, which enabled Malisse to serve out and clinch the set and the match after 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Meanwhile, three seeded players booked places in the quarter-finals of the US$10,000 PTT Bangkok Open ITF men's Futures 4 event yesterday, following second round wins at the Rama Gardens Hotel.

Second seed Nick Lindahl of Australia registered the easiest victory among the three conceding only five games to halt the run of Chinese qualifier Ma Rong 6-1 6-4.

But American fourth seed Jonathan Chu and Israeli fifth seed Victor Kolik were made to struggle. Chu had to recover from a set down to beat Australian Suleman Jafarey-Hall 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-2, while Kolik was forced into a second-set tiebreak before defeating Japan's Masashi Yoshikawa 6-4 7-6 (7-5).

Only eighth seed Nam Hyun-woo of South Korea failed to progress, retiring hurt while trailing compatriot Chung Hee-seok 6-2 at the end of the first set.