Martin ousts Rusedski

Martin will face Lleyton Hewitt in the next round

Greg Rusedski was beaten in straight sets by Todd Martin in the second round of the Siebel Open.

Martin had won six of the eight previous encounters between the pair, including meetings at the US Open and in the Davis Cup in 1999.

Rusedski had come through the first round with a simple win over Lars Burgsmuller despite feeling below par, but he was unable to find the same form against Martin.

The Briton was hoping to emulate his feats of last year when he took the Siebel Open title by beating Andre Agassi in the final.

But Martin took the first set with a single break of serve, and then wrapped up the match by winning a second-set tie-break 7-4.

Strong

Martin will meet top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, who fought off four match points and won the final five points of a third-set tiebreaker to beat Paradom Srichaphan 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Hewitt, the world number one, advanced to the quarter-finals with a huge rally past Srichaphan, a 22-year-old from Thailand with no ATP victories.

Srichaphan led 5-2 in the third set and had a match point at 5-3, but Hewitt broke Srichaphan's serve twice to force a tiebreaker, then rallied from a 6-3 deficit to win.

"You feel tight when you're up there serving for the match, especially against Hewitt," Srichaphan said.

"I tried my best, but he's strong."

Straightforward

Second-seeded crowd favorite Andre Agassi beat Armenia's Sargis Sargsian 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.

Agassi, a four-time champion in the event, enjoyed a straightforward victory against Sargsian, winning in slightly more than an hour.

He will face South Africa's Wayne Ferreira, who advanced on Wednesday.

Sixth seed Xavier Malisse was beaten by the in-form American James Blake.

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Thursday's results from the Siebel Open

Todd Martin (USA) bt Greg Rusedski (GB - 5) 6-3 7-6 (7/4)

James Blake (USA) bt Xavier Malisse (Bel - 6) 6-3 6-1

Andre Agassi (USA - 2) bt Sargis Sargsian (Arm) 6-2 6-4

Andre Sa (Bra) bt Noam Okun (Isr) 6-4 6-0
Jan-Michael Gambill (USA - 4) bt Jan Vacek (Cze) 6-2 6-3

Andy Roddick (USA - 3) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 7-6 (3) 6-7 (4) 6-3