Second seed and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt was upset 3-6, 5-7 by Frenchman Julien Benneteau to cap a day of surprises at the Las Vegas Open on Wednesday.

Australian Hewitt, a three-times winner of the tournament, had reached the final in five of his six previous appearances in the event. Fifth seed Potito Starace and number eight Nicolas Kiefer were also knocked out.

Benneteau, the world number 61, failed on his first attempt to serve out the match but broke Hewitt again and held to set up a clash with unseeded American Sam Querrey who needed less than an hour to eliminate Kiefer.

American qualifier Amer Delic set up a match against fourth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina when Starace retired with a back injury after trailing 3-6, 0-3.

Querrey converted five of six break points to upset German Kiefer 6-3, 6-1. Argentine Canas beat Australian Chris Guccione 6-2, 7-5. Serving for the match at 5-4, Canas saved three breakpoints before his towering left-handed opponent levelled at 5-5. The Argentine then won the next two games to enter quarters.

Nadal out

Sixth seed American Andy Roddick produced a major upset as he packed off Spain’s second seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-2.

Meanwhile Andy Roddick said he has split from his coach Jimmy Connors by mutual agreement. "Jimmy resigned, probably about a week ago. I still have the utmost respect for Jimmy and thank him for his time. I think it was tough for him to do it part-time and maybe not getting exactly the results we wanted, but at the same time he was retired before we got together.”

Fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko beat Briton Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Championships, adds Reuters from Dubai.

Murray held a break point to take the set to a tie-breaker but Davydenko rose to the challenge with a backhand winner and took the set when Murray netted a return. The Scot then had an opportunity to turn the match around, breaking to love as he built a 3-0 lead. But his advantage was short-lived as Davydenko broke back in the fifth game. Davydenko resisted and then broke for 4-3 by forcing a forehand error.

Fourth seed David Ferrer was upset, losing 6-4, 6-3 to Feliciano Lopez in an all-Spanish match. Ferrer, a finalist at the Masters Cup last season, broke to lead 2-1 before Lopez broke twice to take the first set. Ferrer also broke to lead 1-0 in the second but again allowed his opponent back, dropping his serve for 1-1 and again to give Lopez a 3-1 lead.

Bopanna-Aisam lose

Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq-Qureshi squandered one-set lead advantage against top-seeded pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenand Zimonzic to bow out in the doubles event, adds PTI from New Delhi.
The Indo-Pakistan combine lost to Canadian-Serbian duo 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-10 in the quarterfinals.Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles booked a quarterfinal berth after beating Jordan Kerr of Australia and Roger Wassen of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3 in their first round clash on Wednesday.