South African seventh seed Wayne Ferreira and Finnish eighth seed Jarko Nieminen both slumped out of the opening round of the Stockholm Open on Tuesday.

A hot-tempered Ferreira, who at the age of 32 has hinted at imminent retirement, was far from his best and threw his racket in frustration as Argentine claycourt specialist Juan Ignacio Chela beat him 6-4 6-2 in just over an hour.

Chela takes on Swedish hope Robin Soderling in the next round.

Nieminen, a finalist here in 2001, lost 7-6 5-7 6-2 to Frenchman Gregory Carraz in a much closer battle.

Twenty eight-year-old Garraz, a late bloomer who entered the top one hundred of the rankings for the first time in his career earlier this year, served and volleyed impeccably in the first set.

On his way to the tiebreak the Frenchman served out to love five times while the Finnish baseliner had to work harder to hold.

After winning the opening set tiebreak 7-5, Garraz lost some of his rhythm in the second and allowed Nieminen to grab a break for a 3-1 lead.

Garraz broke back in the ninth game following some passive play by Nieminen, but that did not discourage the Finn who finally broke him once again for 7-5 to level the score.

A crucial double-fault by Nieminen and some fine returning gave Garraz a 3-0 double-break lead in the deciding set. The Frenchman went on to clinch the match 6-2.

American Mardy Fish, the fifth seed, beat Australian qualfier Paul Baccanello 6-4 7-6 and takes on another qualifier in the next round, the Frenchman Julien Benneteau who beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-1 6-1.

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