BBC SPORT | Tennis | Moya falls to defiant Novak

Thursday's results from Madrid

Home favourite Carlos Moya blew a one-set lead and a match point in the third as he crashed out of the Madrid Masters to Jiri Novak on Thursday.

Moya, the eighth seed and winner of four titles this year, lost 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 7-5 to the Czech.

Novak now moves ahead of another Spaniard, Albert Costa, into eighth place in the ATP Champions' Race.

Masters Cup: the race to Shanghai

Moya held match point with Novak serving and trailing 5-4 in the third set.

But the world number 11 could not take his opportunity, which he missed on the backhand.

Novak fought back to deuce, held for 5-5 and then broke Moya's serve to lead 6-5 before wrapping up the match.

The 11th seed now faces Paradorn Srichaphan, who followed up wins over Gustavo Kuerten and Tim Henman by easing past Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-2.

Srichaphan powers past Henman

The Thai served just four aces against Ljubicic's 11, but saved the two break points he faced and came through with some controlled, attacking tennis.

Second seed Andre Agassi took almost two and a half hours to see off Spanish wildcard Feliciano Lopez.

The world number two eventually came through to win 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 and meets Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarter-finals.

Thomas Johansson lost to the unseeded Agustin Callieri
Johansson's exit hit his Masters Cup hopes

"It's disappointing that someone had to lose a match like that," Agassi said.

"I was prepared for him but I just couldn't do anything with his serve.

"It was a great match and I feel pretty fortunate to get through it."

French Open finalist Ferrero lost only one game in the last two sets as he rallied to beat veteran Alex Corretja 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 in an all-Spanish centre-court duel.

"I lost faith in my game and my repertoire of shots in the second set," said Corretja. "I couldn't maintain my level."

In Thursday's other third round matches, Thomas Johansson's attempt to claim a place in the Masters Cup suffered an unexpected setback.

Sweden's 15th seed lost 6-4 6-4 to the Argentine outsider Agustin Callieri.

Callieri now faces French seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean, a 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 victor over Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.

Another Frenchman, Fabrice Santoro, also reached the last eight with a 6-0 6-2 defeat of Argentina's David Nalbandian.

Santoro's quarter-final opponent will be 12th seed Roger Federer, who beat Nicolas Lapentti 6-3 6-4 on Thursday night.


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