German Daniel Elsner scored the win of his career Thursday, knocking sluggish top seed Magnus Norman out in the second round of the one-million-dollar Mercedes Cup 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.
Elsner, 21, is playing for the first time this year at ATP Tour level and showed that he likes the company with his knockout of the Swedish holder in two hours at the Weissenhof club.
Elsner had a fast-track junior career, winning three of the four junior Grand Slam events, but has so far slumped at the senior level.
His total career earnings are a mere $67,000, pin money for the big names like Norman and well under the losing finalist's share of 88,000.
Norman started out well enough against Elsner, with one break early in the first set which was enough to clinch it for the Swede after 36 minutes.
The ATP world number one then dropped his first set in seven matches when the German took the second, smashing down an overhead to set up four set points but needed only the first to level when Norman netted a backhand.
The Swede found himself unable to fight back successfully missing on a return which landed just long over the baseline to drop serve in the seventh game of the third set, 3-4.
He saved three match points three games later as Elsner suffered a few big-match nerves.
But a further error from the top seed gave the German another chance, which he took with a service winner.
The early defeat for last weekend's Swedish Open champion will not help Norman's cause in the season-long ATP points race, where he leads the idle Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil by just five points.
Another home hope was dismissed without a battle as 1999 finalist Tommy Haas pulled out injured early in his second set against compatriot Rainer Schuttler.
Haas has been bothered by a rib problem for some time and felt it during his 7-5, 2-1 defeat in the second round.
Gaston Gaudio of Argentina struggled for two hours, 22 minutes to overcome seventh-seeded Moroccan Karim Alami 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, while Czech journeyman Jiri Novak knocked out Brazil's Fernando Meligeni 6-3, 6-2.
Two Russian seeds were playing the last of the second round contests on a cloudy day with temperatures still far from summer-like.
Number two seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov was taking on longtime rival Andrei Medvedev, the 1999 Roland Garros finalist for the 11th time in their careers.
The pair are split at 5-all, with Medvedev winning the first two in 1994 when he was at his teenaged peak and Kafelnikov collecting the last four matches.
Third-seed Marat Safin was taking on Australian Andrew Ilie for a place in the last eight.
Safin played his first match in three weeks Wednesday after three weeks away following a second-round defeat at Wimbledon – (AFP)
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