Haas pounded out as two seeds fall early

IN CONTROL: Philipp Kohlschreiber on his way to the third round.PHOTO/APN

Two of the bigger names have already been ousted from the Heineken Open as the tournament finally clicked into gear yesterday.

The first two days of the men's tournament at Auckland's Stanley St lacked some quality and interest because the top four players received a first-round bye but all of the big names were in action yesterday with several surprise casualties.

Second seed and world No12 Tommy Haas was beaten 6-4 6-4 by promising American Jack Sock, who received a wildcard for the tournament.

Haas struggled to find his range in his first competitive outing of the year but he wasn't really allowed to by Sock, who controlled the match.

The 21-year-old set the tone with his first serve, firing down eight aces and winning 80 per cent of his first serves.

"Some of the important points I didn't play well, that's for sure," Haas said.

"You can't get much of a rhythm when he's serving pretty well or you don't allow yourself to get the return back in play. The quickness, the little steps are definitely not there yet.

"It was a little bit of a struggle, no question about it. He played well when it counted."

Frenchman Benoit Paire became the second seed to fall, slumping to a 6-3 6-4 loss to Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain - a player ranked nearly 50 places below him.

And former world No8 Marcos Baghdatis will also be on an early flight to Australia after being ousted by unheralded American Steve Johnson 7-5 6-7 (3) 6-4.

Johnson was only included in the main draw as a "lucky loser" from qualifying after Frenchman Gael Monfils withdrew on the eve of the tournament.

With the match carried over from Tuesday after rain forced the abandonment of that night's late session, he was scheduled to be back in action last night with a second-round match against fourth seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber advanced through to the third round with a straight-forward 6-4 6-2 win over Argentina's Horacio Zeballos.

After a tricky first-round assignment against Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, Kohlschreiber was pleased with his clinical display yesterday.

"Today was a new day. I played a great match and didn't make many mistakes. I served well, very clever with the wind.

"It's tricky in the wind. Overall I played a very clever and great game," said Kohlschreiber.

In yesterday's late afternoon match, third-seeded American John Isner beat Lukas Lacko 7-6(1) 3-6 6-2.APNZ