Robby Ginepri and Oscar Hernandez both crashed out at the first hurdle on a day of surprises at the XL Open.

Ginepri was well beaten by Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 6-3, and second seed Hernandez was forced to retire hurt when 3-0 down in the third set.

Although Ginepri was unseeded for this tournament, he is a former French Open champion, and had been expected to challenge the favourites later in the week.

Hernandez too was among the favourites, but in a feisty game against Carlos Berlocq, he took the first set 6-2, was penalised a point for smashing his racket and lost a second-set tie-break.

At 1-0 down in the third set, Hernandez required medical treatment and was only able to play two more games before retiring.

In truth it made little difference as Berlocq was in full control of proceedings at that point.

The loss of Ginepri and Hernandez has opened up the draw for top-seed Dudi Sela. The Israeli comfortably beat Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic, and will be one of the favourites to now win the tournament.

Sela is also one of the only players so far who appears to be comfortable playing attacking tennis. Unlike many of his fellow professionals he seems unwilling to sit on the baseline and wait for his opponent to make a mistake.

Strangely, this tactic, while both simple and effective, is not adopted by everyone. Vacek falls into the later category, and as such was always struggling against an opponent who has a wicked backhand return, and an equally powerful forehand.

Sela's speed around the court is also a big advantage, and he used it to great effect against Vacek.

The top-seed broke his opponent in the very first game, and although he was broken himself later on in the first set, never looked like being caught.

Vacek had chances to take the second set, but once he had blown three break-points to go 4-1 down it was all over. Sela eventually sealing a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win.

In the rest of the afternoon matches there were wins for Wayne Odesnik, Vincent Spadea, and the new doubles pairing of Greg Jones and Donald Young.