to the basement in a matter of 48 hours.

Coming off a big victory at a tournament in Houston on Sunday, Stoltenberg yesterday crashed out of the XL Bermuda Open with a first round loss to unheralded Dirk Dier.

Dier, ranked 159th in the world, threw the $125,000 tournament wide open with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the just-turned 27-year-old top seed before a stunned centre court crowd at Coral Beach Club. The only other seed in action, number seven Sargis Sargsian, advanced with with 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 victory over Mark Knowles last night.

Currently ranked 40th in the world, Stoltenberg arrived in Bermuda late on Monday sky high after beating Boris Becker in the semi-finals and 34th-ranked Alex O'Brien in the River Oaks Invitational. But yesterday, he never got in the groove and bowed out against a 25-year-old German whose highest singles ranking was nearly a year ago at 118.

"These days, that's the way it is in tennis,'' shrugged Stoltenberg. "You just can't tell by the rankings what's going to happen.'' "But I just had a good result (on the weekend) so I'm not going to get too upset after one loss.'' His victory in Houston was also on clay but Stoltenberg said that surface was much different than the Har-Tru court of Coral Beach. "This court's a lot slower than last week ... I'm used to much faster conditions.'' Dier fed Stoltenberg a steady diet of baseline drives, using a pinpoint backhand and occasional slices to break the Australian's serve in the first game of each set. "That was the key for me,'' said Dier.

Added Stoltenberg: "It felt like I was playing catch-up all day.'' He was. Dier broke Stoltenberg again with a deep backhand just inside the line for 4-1 lead in the first set. It was 5-2 when Stoltenberg made a charge of sorts, breaking Dier and then needing just five serves to close to 5-4. He was at deuce in the tenth game when he mishit a shot wide and slammed a return into the net.

In the second set, Dier enjoyed leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 when Stoltenberg tried another rally. His ace on game point made it 4-3 but with Dier serving in the eighth, three successive returns were a whisker too long, sealing his fate.

Dier was up 5-4, 40-0 when Stoltenberg typified his day with a forehand return into the net -- on a second serve.

While Stoltenberg is now left to ponder doubles, Dier will face Argentina's Marcelo Charpentier, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Wayne Black yesterday, in the second round this morning.

Sargsian also won't have much time to savour his win, taking centre court today against American Jeff Salzenstein.

Last night, Sargsian showed their was no substitute for speed, as he ran down every volley and pounced on every slice in Knowles' arsenal.

Sargsian, who grew up in Armenia but became an NCAA champion at Arizona State University two years ago, had a see-saw battle with Knowles in the first set.

He broke the Bahamian in the fifth game, was broken back in the tenth, and then fell behind 5-6.

But he raced back to force the tiebreaker, where he took leads of 3-0 and 4-1.

Knowles closed to 4-3 but promptly lost two straight points on his serve.

It was after being broken in the second game of the second set that a frustrated Knowles all but surrendered. He scored but two points in the next three games, double-faulting to close out the fourth and watching an ace give Sargsian a 5-0 lead.