Defending champion Nicolas Massu's hopes for further medal glory has been dashed by Argentina's seventh seed David Nalbandian in the second round of the men's singles at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre on Tuesday.
Nalbandian needed one hour and 25 minutes to beat the Chilean 7-6(0), 6-1.
Massu, who also won doubles gold at the Athens Olympics, fought hard in the first set and traded service breaks with Nalbandian, eventually forcing a tiebreak where the Argentine dominated, winning at 7-0.
Massu's resistance wilted and Nalbandian wrapped up the second set in just 28 minutes to advance to a third round meeting against Frenchman Gael Monfils.
Massu and Fernando Gonzalez failed in their bid to defend their Athens doubles gold when they fell to Russians Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny 7-6(5), 6-4 in the men's doubles first round on Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)