Associated Press

Doha, January 5:

French Open champion Gaston Gaudio was upset by world No 1 junior Gael Monfils of France 6-4, 7-6 in the first round of the Qatar Open. Gaudio finished last year ranked in the top 10 for the first time, but his poor record on hard courts was exploited by 18-year-old Monfils, who won three of the four junior Grand Slams last year (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon). Also beaten were fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and No 5 Andrei Pavel of Romania.

Another teenager, Spanish Davis Cup hero Rafael Nadal, put out Youzhny 6-3, 7-6, and Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland knocked out Pavel 7-5, 6-7, 6-4.

Beside Monfils, two other Frenchmen advanced: Third-seeded Sebastien Grosjean and 2000 Qatar Open champion Fabrice Santoro. Grosjean beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6, 6-2, and Santoro registered his second career win against 2002 Australian Open champ Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-4, 6-2. Eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia struggled past Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 7-6, 6-3, and in the second round will meet Karol Beck of Slovakia, who downed Igor Andreev of Russia 6-3, 6-4. ASB Women’s Classic AUCKLAND: Top-seeded Amy Frazier of the United States surpassed her best performance at the ASB Women’s Classic tennis tournament when she beat Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals.

On Wednesday, maintaining the form which lifted her 34 ranking places in 2004 and brought her a seventh career singles title, Frazier overwhelmed her 17-year-old Czech opponent.

Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia also advanced, beating Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-1, 6-0. Jankovic struggled with the flu in her first-round match but seemed to have recovered on Wednesday, allowing Llogostera Vives to hold serve only once in six games.

Shinobu Asagoe of Japan had an easy path to the final eight when her second-round opponent, American Shenay Perry, retired with a knee injury after losing the first set 6-1.

Fifth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, a semi-finalist at Auckland last year, beat Jill Craybas of the United States 2-6, 6-0, 6-2. Israeli Shahar Peer beat Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 and Russia’s Tatiana Panova downed Martina Sucha of Slovakia 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

In the other matches, Slovakia’s Janette Husarova beat Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-0 and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia defeated Lina Krasnoroutskaya of Russia 7-6, 6-1.