Ferrero loses top spot in shock defeat

French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero lost his place at the top of the ATP Champions Race after a shock third-round defeat in the Masters Series in Montreal.

Ferrero’s six-week spell at the pinnacle ended with a 6-3 7-5 loss to Karol Kucera, a former top 10 player from Slovakia whose career has been hampered by injury in recent years.

“It was my worst performance of the year,” he admitted. “I was so bad. It was one of those days when I just felt bad. I’m so disappointed. Now (Roger) Federer is number one.”

The Wimbledon champion overtook Ferrero’s points total after beating the Spanish Davis Cup player Tommy Robredo, though there is no guarantee that Federer will be top when the latest table is published at the end of the week.

If the Swiss player loses his next match, against his doubles partner Max Mirnyi, and Andre Agassi goes on to win the tournament, then the American would become number one.

Federer’s 6-4 6-2 win over Robredo was his 18th in 19 matches in a sequence going back to June, though he was critical of his performance.

“I struggled at the beginning to read his serve and I thought he played really well in the first set,” said Federer. “He deserved it more than I did.

“I will need to play better in the next round,” he added. “Max (Mirnyi) can be dangerous – I know, I see him from very close quarters.”

The unseeded Belorussian, one of the few all-out serve-volleyers left in the game, followed his conquest of the fifth-seeded former world number one Lleyton Hewitt by beating 11th seed Paradorn Srichaphan 6-3 6-2.

Meanwhile, top seed Agassi came through after being 4-1 down in the first set, recovering to win 6-4 6-2 against local wild card player Simon Larose.

Agassi now meets German Rainer Schuttler and the other quarter-final in the favourite’s half of the draw will be between David Nalbandian, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up from Argentina, and Feliciano Lopez, the hard-hitting left-handed Spaniard.

This encounter will ensure an unseeded semi-finalist.

Meanwhile, Kucera’s reward for his giant-killing act against Ferrero is to play another of the front-runners, sixth seed Andy Roddick.

The young American played impressively against fellow Wimbledon semi-finalist Sebastien Grosjean in a 6-3 6-3 victory, although Roddick was also helped by his opponent’s elbow problems and a controversial incident at match point.