Tennis: Agassi and Safin crash out in second round

Andre Agassi and Marat Safin have crashed out of the Masters Series event in Hamburg.

Agassi, seeded third, was beaten 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 by Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, while second-seed Safin surrendered 6-0, 7-6 (0) to Argentina's Gaston Gaudio.

That left just four seeded players in the event, with Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, the seventh seed, yet to play his second-round match against Spain's Fernando Vicente.

The defeat was a setback for Agassi with just two weeks left to prepare for the French Open.

He has had a slow start to his clay court season, going out in the opening round at the Masters in Rome last week and losing in the first round to France's Nicolas Thomann in Atlanta before that.

Safin's defeat extended his season-long drought.

The reigning US Open champion, who was eliminated by Swiss teenager Roger Federer in the second round in Rome last week, is still seeking his first title of the season.

Unable to make anything work for him in the opening set against Gaudio, Safin finally won his first game to go 1-1 in the second.

While Safin was able to keep up in the second, he crumbled in the tiebreak, with Gaudio storming to a 6-0 lead, clinching the win when Safin double-faulted.

In other second-round matches, Morocco's Hicham Arazi saved nine match points to post a stunning 2-6, 7-6 (8), 7-5 comeback victory over home hero Tommy Haas, who was booed off the court.

In one of several matches interrupted by rain, 14th-seeded Jan-Michael of the United States beat Marcelo Rios 6-3, 6-4.