Stage fright at Bercy

The top seeds sat out the opening day of the Paris Masters at Bercy, but some of the better performed hopefuls from the lower ranks wasted their chance to grab the headlines.

Early casualties included South African Wayne Ferreira, Max Mirnyi of Belarus, American Robby Ginepri and Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina.

Mirnyi, ranked 22nd on the ATP’s list, was the most notable first round scalp, losing in straight sets – 6-4 4-6 6-1 – to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who is 62nd in the Champions Race standings.

The 24th ranked Ferreira was dispatched with equal ease by the 79th ranked Romania’s Victor Hanescu, losing 2-6 6-4 6-3.

Ginepri showed a little more fight before going down 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to Slovakia’s Karol Beck and the 24th ranked Zabaleta put up even sterner resistance before being worn down 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-5 by Spain’s former French Open champion Alberto Costa who is two places below him in the rankings.

Another Argentine moving up the rankings, Gaston Gaudio – he’s currently 33rd - fought off no fewer than six match points before downing the talented but nervous French 17-year-old Richard Gasquet 1-6 7-6 (13-11) 6-4.

Another Frenchman, the 21-year-old Nicolas Mahut outlasted Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 4-6 6-4 7-5 while Morocco’s Hicham Arazi had little difficulty disposing of Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5 6-4.