Soderling and Mirnyi win

ByEurosport

Published 26/02/2004 at 15:34 GMT

Swedish 19-year-old Robin Soderling ended the hopes of home favourite Gregory Carraz in the second round of the Marseille Open on Thursday. The right-hander cruised through 6-3 6-4. Fourth seed Max Mirnyi reached the last eight with a 6-4 6-4 victory over

Eurosport

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Eighth-seeded Russian Marat Safin joined Guillermo Coria and sixth-seed Albert Costa on the list of ranked players to be humbled on Thursday.

Safin was beaten 7-6 7-5 by Swede Jonas Bjorkman while Coria lost to the semi-retired Marc Rosset of Switzerland. Former French Open champion Costa also lost, going down 7-5 4-6 7-6 to Slovak Dominik Hrbaty.

"Jonas played a first class match," said Safin. "He had a little bit of luck with the net cord at times, but I can't complain about my game," added the Australian Open finalist.

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Bjorkman was delighted after his third big win of the season, having beaten Andy Roddick in Doha and Mark Philippoussis in the Davis Cup.

"I lost my first four matches against Marat and won the last three. It took me time to understand his game," he said.

Bjorkman will meet now Rosset, who shone at one of his favourite tournaments when he upset second seed Coria 7-6 6-1.

The 33-year-old Swiss Davis Cup captain, who had to qualify for the $600,000 tournament, celebrated his 25th match victory at an event he won in 1993, 1994 and 2000.

The 1992 Olympic champion, now ranked 122nd in the world, took full advantage of the Argentine clay-court specialist's discomfort on the indoor hardcourt.

HONORARY CITIZEN

"I was really keen to meet him as it was the first time. You don't meet top 10 guys in Challengers these days," Rosset said of fourth-ranked Coria, who won his seventh career title in Buenos Aires last weekend.

"The fact that he was returning from playing on clay helped for sure but I took lots of risks on his serve and it paid off."

"I had been looking for moments like this for some time," added Rosset, who is now semi-retired. "It's hard at my age to keep the motivation."

"But I have great fun in the tournaments I enjoy. That's the case in France and especially in Marseille, a town in which I haven't lost many matches.

"They should make me an honorary citizen," he said.

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