Felix Mantilla, who had been trying for a hat-trick of titles at Bournemouth, saw his ambition shattered yesterday in the first round of the Samsung Open.

The top 20 Spaniard was beaten 6-2 6-3 by Kenneth Carlsen, a left-handed Dane not known as a clay court specialist and who is ranked down at 86th in the world.

Mantilla began satisfactorily enough, taking the first two games, but then unaccountably fell apart, losing the next nine in succession with an uncharacteristically limp display.

"I have no explanation. I felt I couldn't do anything. It's very bad losing like that," Mantilla admitted.

"I just hope I can come back and win again next year."

Another top player went out when Andrei Medvedev, the fourth seed, was beaten 6-2 7-6 by Swede Magnus Gustafsson.

The defeat continued the Ukrainian's dismal run since narrowly losing one of the great finals of all time against Andre Agassi at the French Open in June.

Medvedev led 5-2 in the second set and 5-3 in the tie-break, but could not survive a bombardment of big forehand shots, also gaining a code violation warning for ball abuse near the end.

However, Swedish top seed Thomas Enqvist came through safely, winning 7-5 6-1, against his compatriot Nicklas Kulti.

But this was far from an easy match for Enqvist, for Kulti is not only a fellow member of past Davis Cup title winning sides, but a godfather to his child.

"It's always difficult to play your best friend. We both found it difficult to get pumped up," said Enqvist.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.