Friday 1 May 2015 12:43, UK
South Africa's Kevin Anderson joined the exodus of Estoril Open seeds when he slumped to a 6-4 3-6 6-1 defeat to Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on the back of nine double faults.
The exit of second-seeded Anderson left the rebranded claycourt event without its top four players before the quarter-final stage.
Top seed Feliciano Lopez lost 24 hours earlier, No 3 Tommy Robredo withdrew injured while fourth-seeded Leonardo Mayer was another early victim.
Frenchman Richard Gasquet, a finalist in 2007 and 2012 and ranked five this year, remains the highest seed still in contention along with No 7 Nick Kyrgios and Gilles Muller, seeded eight.
Muller reached the last eight as he posted a 4-6 6-3 7-6 (9/7) defeat of two-time champion Albert Montanes, saving two match points in the tie-breaker.
Anderson went down in just over two hours, losing serve three times but crushed mainly by his serving errors.
He contributed his last double-fault in the penultimate game on a break point to trail 5-1 before being put out of his misery a game later.
Anderson has reached the semi-finals or better four times this year and now stands 33-31 on clay for his career.
The 31st-ranked Garcia-Lopez owns titles this season at Zagreb and won on clay in Bucharest last weekend. He now stands 18-8 in 2015 and 7-1 on clay.
The first match of a tournament is always difficult and Anderson is a very aggressive player. I'm playing with confidence right now and hope to win another round or two.
"I'm delighted with the win, especially since last week I won a tournament," said Garcia-Lopez. "It's not easy, especially since I'm pretty tired.
"The first match of a tournament is always difficult and Anderson is a very aggressive player. I'm playing with confidence right now and hope to win another round or two."
Garcia-Lopez's best Estoril showings were semi-finals in 2005 and 2010.
Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta beat compatriot David Vega Hernandez, who replaced Robredo in the draw, 6-1 6-2 while Croatian teenager Borna Coric outlasted the last Portuguese in the field, beating Rui Machado 6-4 5-7 6-1.
