Seeds tumble in Marseille

It was not a good day to be a high seed at the Marseille Open on Wednesday when the top three players and defending champion Arnaud Clement all crashed out of the hardcourt tournament at the first hurdle.

Top-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko suffered the biggest upset as he was ousted by Robin Soderling of Sweden 3-6 6-4 6-1.

Ivan Ljubicic, the number two seed, also had no luck as he dropped to a 6-4 6-4 loss against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who delighted the home fans.

It was a rough day for another Croatian as third-seeded Mario Ancic was on the court for just 17 minutes before retiring due to illness.

Ancic had lost the first four games to Italian Andreas Seppi.

And playing in front of his home fans, the unseeded Clement was also beaten by fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-4 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet moved into the second round however with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic.

And number eight seed Lleyton Hewitt outlasted Michael Llodra of France 4-6 6-1 6-4.