Seeds tumble in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur - Spain's Nicolas Almagro and Vasek Pospisil of Canada on Wednesday became the latest seeds to exit the Malaysian Open, but there was no such trouble for world number four David Ferrer.

The Spaniard, the top seed in Kuala Lumpur, swatted aside Matteo Viola of Italy 6-2, 6-3 in 73 minutes to book his ticket to the final eight.

"It wasn't as easy as the scores suggest. It's just that Viola was a little nervous and made a couple of mistakes in the first set," said Ferrer.

"But credit to him, he came back in the second and played some good rallies.

"First match (of the tournament) is always tough, but I feel good and I was consistent," Ferrer said. "I'm happy to seal the win in straight sets."

Third seed Almagro, who has endured a wretched season with injuries, was sluggish and mixed his game with six aces and five double faults as he crashed out 6-4, 6-3 to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in 76 minutes.

Seventh seed Pospisil, meanwhile, found Argentine Federico Delbonis a tough nut to crack and suffered a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/1) defeat, also in the second round.

The eighth seed and former champion Nikolay Davydenko was sent packing on Tuesday.

Almagro was so upset with his loss that he smashed his racquet against the floor after the final point, while his opponent was grinning from ear to ear.

"My only goal in this match was to try harder and play as well as I could," said Mannarino.

"I'm really pleased with the way I performed as my shots found the lines perfectly. It doesn't matter who I play next (either fifth seed Julien Benneteau or Pablo Andujar).

"All I care about is going out to give my best.

"The court is a little slow and while it is not to my liking, I managed to win most of the long rallies. That's strange as I expected him to be better than me and my plan was to try to finish off the points as quickly as possible."

Results from the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (x denotes seeds):

Singles first round:
Joao Sousa (POR) bt Ryan Harrison (USA) 6-3, 6-2
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) bt Carlos Berlocq (ARG) 7-6 (7/3), 6-3
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS x6) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 7-5, 6-0
Julien Benneteau (FRA x5) bt Michal Przysiezny (POL) 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

Singles second round:
Federico Delbonis (ARG) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN x7) 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/1)
Adrian Mannarino (FRA) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP x3) 6-4, 6-3
David Ferrer (ESP x1) bt Matteo Viola (ITA) 6-2, 6-3