WESTERN BUREAU:
TOP SEED Emin Agaev of Azerbaijan was yesterday knocked out of the Bell Caribbean Jamaica Futures tournament No. 18 at the Swept Away Resort in Negril.
Agaev was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Spaniard Carlos Rexach-Itoiz who was in turn knocked out by France's Cedric Kaufmann later in the day in the next round.
Kaufmann had on Tuesday knocked out Jamaica's Dustin Brown, 6-1, 7-5, in the first round.
All three Jamaicans and six of the eight seeded players were knocked out in the first two rounds.
Jamaicans Ryan Russell and Scot Willinsky continued to struggle against the overseas players and were beaten in straight sets by Slovakian Michael Mertinak and Australian Adam Kennedy respectively.
Second seed and winner of last week's event, Pavel Snobel of the Czech Republic; third seed Kepler Orellana of Venezuela; fourth seed Zbynek Mlynarik of Austria and sixth seed Brandon Hawk of the United States were beaten in the first round along with Agaev while eighth seed Eduardo Bohrer of Brazil lasted as long as the second round before he was beaten in straight sets by Great Britain's Miles MaClagan.
In two quarter-final match-ups already decided MaClagan will meet Poland's Michal Przysiezny while Kaufmann and Yugoslavian Darko Madjarovski will also meet for a place in the semi-finals.
