Fabrice Santoro, crushed the Frenchman 6-2, 6-4 yesterday to reach the third round of the Stuttgart Masters Series.

Defending champion Thomas Enqvist, the fifth seed, fell to his own bete noire when he lost 6-2, 7-5 to South African Wayne Ferreira, who has now beaten the Swede in all their five meetings.

But Bermuda resident and Wimbledon finalist Patrick Rafter, the 14th seed, lost his second round match, falling 7-6, 6-2 to Romanian Andrei Pavel in late action.

And Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, seeded sixth, moved past Swiss Roger Federer 7-5, 6-3.

Russian Safin was eager to improve on his embarrassing record against Santoro, who had won all four of their previous encounters, the most recent in the first round of the Sydney Olympics.

"I just had to convince myself that I had everything to beat him,'' said the towering 20-year-old, regarded as the future of men's tennis since his demolition of Pete Sampras in the US Open final in September.

"I got scared every time we played but I just couldn't let him drive me crazy. He was the only player in the world to have that sort of record against me. It had to be stopped.'' Safin, currently second to Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten in the ATP Champions Race, is fighting with the French Open champion for the privilege of ending the year in top spot. Whoever goes further here will take the lead.

The gifted Russian will now play Britain's Greg Rusedski, unseeded this year after suffering a series of injuries.

Enqvist, who beat Dutchman Richard Krajicek in the final here last year, came to Stuttgart full of hope after winning the Swiss indoor championships in Basle on Sunday.

"He doesn't suit my game and I knew it would be tough,'' he said after Ferreira beat him again.

By losing, Enqvist, currently seventh in the ATP Champions Race, undermined his chances of making it to the season-ending Masters Cup for the world's top eight players later this month in Lisbon.

Fellow Swede Magnus Norman, the third seed, joined the Masters Cup line-up the easy way when Swiss opponent Marc Rosset fell ill and withdrew from the tournament.

The French Open finalist booked the fifth place in Lisbon. Kuerten, Safin, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi had already won theirs.

Britain's Tim Henman advanced smoothly to the third round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Spanish baseliner Albert Costa.

Ninth seed Henman, who had a bye to the second round like all seeded players, relied on his trademark serve-and-volley game.

The Briton now meets Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, the eighth seed. Hewitt beat Henman 6-4, 7-6 in their only meeting so far.

Booming backhand: Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in hard-hitting action during his victory in the Masters Series event in Stuttgart.