Massú defeated during first round of ATP in Serbia

SANTIAGO.- Chilean tennis player Nicolás Massú (ATP No. 98) had only a short stint at the ATP 250 tournament in Belgrade, Serbia (for 450,000 euros in prizes) after being defeated by Argentine player Brian Dabul (ATP No.108), with sets of 6-2 and 6-1. The match was uneven and ended with the Viña del Mar native fighting for points up until the very end, despite a score of 5-0 against him during the second set.

Both sets were short and the match ended in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Now, Nicolás Massú will drop almost 20 positions in the ranking and will once again leave the list of the top 100 players in the world. The Olympic medallist has accumulated several consecutive losses recently and has been eliminated from the last three tournaments he has participated in: the Rome Masters, the ATP 500 in Barcelona and the Montecarlo Masters.

Furthermore, Massú has lost the first match in seven of the 10 tournaments he has participated in this year. The player's struggles are in stark contrast to his strong performance in the same period of 2008, when he made it to the semi-finals of the Morrocco and Tunisia Challengers, and took first place at the Rijeka Challenger in Croatia.