Haas defeated in Halle

Tommy Haas was a first round failure at Halle

The first top name to fall at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany was sixth-seed Tommy Haas who succumbed to a qualifier.

The German crashed out to Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in three sets in the US$1m grass court tournament which is a prelude to Wimbledon.

Haas later attributed his 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 loss to the change from clay to grass, and his racquet.

"The tension on the strings were never really right - the whole change to grass didn't really work out," he said.

Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, the third seed, was fortunate to survive against German Marc Goellner winning 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-3).

Chances squandered

After taking the first set, Goellner squandered five chances to break Lapentti and take a 6-5 lead in the second set.

Most of the top seeds, led by two-time winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov and defending champion Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, first see action on Tuesday.

Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine also needed three sets to oust Germany's Rainer Schuettler, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, while Spain's Albert Portas beat Norway's Christian Ruud 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-3 and Switzerland's Roger Federer rolled past Frenchman Arnaud Clement, 6-4, 6-2.

Former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek needed three sets to get past Jeff Tarango after the American had taken the first set on a tie-break.

Results:

Michael Chang (US) beat Mikael Tillstrom (Sweden) 6-3 3-6 6-3

Oscar Burrieza (Spain) beat Karim Alami (Morocco) 6-3 6-1

Richard Krajicek (Netherlands) beat Jeff Tarango (US) 6-7 (11-13) 6-4 6-4

Andrei Medvedev (Ukraine) beat Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 6-3 2-6 6-3

Albert Portas (Spain) beat Christian Ruud (Norway) 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-3

Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) beat (6)Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-2 5-7 6-2

Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Arnaud Clement (France) 6-4 6-2

(3)Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) beat Marc Goellner (Germany) 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3)