PARIS (AFP) - Top seed Andy Roddick and defending champion Tim Henman both crashed out of the 2.45-million-euro Paris Masters dealing two further body blows to a tournament which was already reeling on the ropes.
Roddick lost 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to Belarussian qualifier Max Mirnyi while Henman, the third seed, went out to unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-1.
That left second seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt and former double champion Marat Safin, seeded six, to try and rescue a tournament already stripped of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi before a ball had been struck.
Roddick had won all of his three career meetings with the world number 64 Mirnyi and went into the match having won 71 matches this season as well as picking up four titles.
But Mirnyi, who possesses a serve every big as Roddick's, varied his game with thunderous groundstrokes and convincing volleys to prevent the American from settling into a rhythm.
In the first set, Roddick fired down 10 aces and Mirnyi seven but the Belarussian played a wonderful lob to gain the first break in the tie-break and then secured the opening set when a frustrated Roddick hit a forehand long.
Mirnyi broke again in the second game of the second set when he got his racquet to a 210kmh serve which so stunned the American he could only pat it long in return.
A 14th ace of the match gave Mirnyi a 5-2 lead before Roddick completely surrendered when he hit long on the first of the Belarussian's three match points.
Roddick, who was out-aced 14-13, failed to clinch a single break point in the entire encounter which was wrapped up by the 27-year-old Mirnyi in just 65 minutes.
Mirnyi's reward is a quarter-final clash against either French wildcard Cyril Saulnier or Sweden's Robin Soderling.
Youzhny's prize for beating Henman is a clash with Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek for a place in the semi-finals.
By contrast, Hewitt reached the quarter-finals with the minimum of effort when his opponent, Chile's Olympic champion Nicolas Massu, retired with a hip injury with the Australian leading 4-3 in the first set.
Hewitt, who spent just 29 minutes on court, now faces either Safin of Russia or Jurgen Melzer of Austria for a place in the last four.
"I would have preferred to have more match time," said Hewitt. "I was starting to get on his serve but I know that in the next round, especially if I play Safin, I will have to pick it up a notch."
Henman admitted that Youzhny was on top of his game on Thursday.
"He was on to my serve, was very aggressive and played shots at a high level," said Henman who still has one tournament left this year - the Masters Cup in Houston later this month.
"There is nothing wrong with the way I am hitting the ball. I was sluggish and I need to get my sharpness back for the Masters Cup."
Henman's misery was summed up by him losing his last five service games.
Stepanek, who came through the qualifiers, eased past American 17th seed Vincent Spadea 6-2, 6-3 to book his place in the last eight.
Argentinian 13th seed Guillermo Canas beat Germany's Tommy Haas 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 and now faces Spain's Feliciano Lopez who put out 11th seeded Romanian Andrei Pavel, who was last year's runner-up, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
11/04/2004 - 17:15 GMT - AFP