French ninth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu was knocked out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday, losing 6-4 2-6 6-3 to Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

It was a bad day for French players with Fabrice Santoro also bowing out 7-6 6-1 against Kristov Vliegen.

The Belgian qualifier next takes on seventh seed Richard Gasquet, 11 months after beating the Frenchman in the French Open second round.

Spaniard Carlos Moya, who won the French Open 10 years ago, slumped to a 6-3 1-6 6-3 defeat at the hands of unheralded Sam Querrey of the United States.

The Spanish 10th seed was wiped out in one hour and 37 minutes by the 20-year-old Querrey, who won the Las Vegas tournament earlier this year.

His compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero recovered from a shaky start to see off Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-7 6-1 6-1.

The former French Open champion, who won the tournament in 2002 and 2003, will battle it out for a third-round spot against either Finn Jarkko Nieminen or France's Marc Gicquel.

Big serving Robin Soderling of Sweden wasted three match points in the second set before overcoming Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-7 6-3.

Later on Monday, three-times French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten has a first-round date with Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic as he builds up for his Roland-Garros farewell.

Reuters