Third seed Carlos Moya of Spain became the latest seed to crash out of the Olympic men's tennis tournament today when he went down in straight sets to tenth seed Nicolas Massu of Chile 2-6, 5-7.
In another quarterfinal on Court 2, Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, the eighth seed, crashed out to sixteenth seed Fernando Gonzalez, also of Chile, 2-6, 6-2, 4-6 in a match lasting 1 hour 47 minutes.
Moya hardly ever got into his stride in the first set, dropping his serve in the fourth and the seventh game to hand the set to the Chilean in just 34 minutes.
The 1998 French Open champion then pulled himself together and put up a better performance, breaking the Chilean in the seventh game to go up 3-4. But the Chilean broke right back to put the set back on serve. Massu then converted his eighth break point of the set in the 12th game to take the second set 7-5.
Later, Grosjean got off to a poor start in the first set, dropping his serve in the fifth and seventh games to hand the initiative to Gonzalez in 34 minutes.
But he fought back in the second set to break his rival in the fourth and eighth games to put the match on an even keel. The set lasted just 31 minutes.
The deciding set went with serve until the fifth game, when Gonzalez broke the Frenchman and then held serve to go 4-2 up. But Grosjean held his nerve and serve in the seventh game and then broke Gonzalez to put the set back on serve.
But the euphoria was shortlived as the South American broke right back to take the lead and then held his serve to close the set out in 42 minutes 6-4.