MADRID, Oct 19: Gaston Gaudio’s miserable run of form continued after he became the first seed to tumble out of the Madrid Masters following a 7-6 6-2 second-round defeat by Jose Acasuso on Wednesday.

Acasuso won the all-Argentine duel over the seventh seed to earn a third round match against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who edged out British number one Tim Henman 6-4 1-6 6-3.

Fourth seed Guillermo Coria stayed alive with a 6-3 6-4 win over Christophe Rochus and will meet Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez.

Top seed and world number two Rafael Nadal confirmed he will be fit to play a second-round match against Romania’s Victor Hanescu later after a scan showed he was recovering from the tendinitis problems in his knees.

Argentina’s Coria, who has reached two Masters Series finals this year before losing both to Nadal, made an authoritative start on centre court by breaking his Rochus in the second game.

The 23-year-old worked Rochus around the court with a string of whipped forehands and never allowed his Belgian opponent to get to the net in the first set.

Both players struggled on their serve in the second set, exchanging three breaks apiece in the first eight games, before former French Open runner-up Coria broke through in the ninth and then served out for the match.

Stepanek, who beat Henman in Vienna last week to claim his first win against the Briton in five attempts, broke serve in the first and fifth games on his way to a 5-3 lead in the first set.

Henman pushed his opponent hard in the 10th game, but the Czech got the better of a quick-fire exchange at the net to hold his serve and take the first set 6-4.

The British number one found his rhythm in the second set and raced away to a 5-0 lead before serving out to take it 6-1.

Stepanek fought back in the third, getting the crucial break in the eighth game and served out to love to take the decisive set 6-3.

Ninth seed Thomas Johansson of Sweden disposed of Juan Ignacio Chela 7-6 6-3 and meets another Argentine David Nalbandian in his next match.

Late on Max Mirnyi powered his way to a 7-5 7-6 win over Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, setting up a second round clash with number six seed Mariano Puerta.

Mirnyi, nicknamed ‘the beast’, broke Ferrero’s serve in the 12th game to take the first set, but the Spaniard broke back early in the second.

Ferrero, who reached the final in Vienna last week where he lost to Ivan Ljubicic, always struggled to cope with Mirnyi’s aggressive serve and volley game, however, and cracked in the 10th game.

The Belarussian only dropped two points in the second set tie break.

Fifth seed David Nalbandian eased into the third round of the tournament with a comfortable 7-6 6-3 win over Austrian Juergen Melzer.

The 23-year-old Argentine, who lost to Marat Safin in last year’s final, took the tie break 7-1 and broke Melzer’s serve twice to take the second set.

Nalbandian was joined by 11th-seed David Ferrer of Spain who came from 4-2 down in the third set to dismiss qualifier Agustin Calleri of Argentina 6-3 4-6 6-4.

Calleri had defeated Albert Costa on Monday but slipped to his third defeat to Ferrer this year.

American Robby Ginepri came from a set down to beat France’s Sebastien Grosjean 4-6 6-4 6-4 in their second round match - the first time the 23-year-old has beaten Grosjean.

Ginepri has reached the quarter-finals of his last four tournaments and also got to the semi-finals of the U.S. Open where he lost in five sets to Andre Agassi.

Earlier on Tuesday, giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic won the battle of the big servers when he came from a set down to edge Greg Rusedski 6-7 7-6 7-6 in their first round clash.

Karlovic, who also beat the British number two when they met in Washington earlier this season, reeled off 24 aces on his way to a victory that took two hours and 17 minutes.

Results:

Second Round:

Mariano Puerta (Argentina) bt Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 7-6 7-6; Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Victor Hanescu (Romania) 7-6(5) 6-3; Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) bt Karol Beck (Slovakia) 6-4 6-1; Olivier Rochus (Belgium) bt Mario Ancic (Croatia) 1-6 6-4 7-6; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Tim Henman (Britain) 6-4 1-6 6-3; Jose Acasuso (Argentina) bt Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) 7-6(4) 6-2; Thomas Johansson (Sweden) bt Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) 7-6(2) 6-3; Guillermo Coria (Argentina) bt Christophe Rochus (Belgium) 6-3 6-4; Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) bt Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-4 6-2.