Three seeds knocked out in Adelaide

Fifth seeded American James Blake followed Tommy Robredo and Mario Ancic out of the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide yesterday when he lost 3-6 6-4 6-4 to Italian Andreas Seppi.

Third seed Robredo of Spain was beaten 7-6 3-6 6-3 by Frenchman Florent Serra and fourth seeded Croat Mario Ancic lost 3-6 6-3 7-6 to Belgium's Xavier Malisse in earlier second-round matches.

Seventh seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland was the only seed to survive a dismal day for ranked players when he beat Florian Mayer 7-6 7-5.

Serra, who spent most of 2005 on the Challenger circuit, capitalised on unforced errors from Robredo to win the opening set tiebreak after the Spaniard had been serving for the set at 5-4.

Although his service game disintegrated in the second set, the 24-year-old managed to break Robredo early in the third.

Serra improved 159 positions in the rankings in 2005 to finish the year at a career best 49.

Australia's top seed Lleyton Hewitt and wildcard Mark Philippoussis play their second round matches today.

Hewitt meets Philipp Kohlsch-reiber and Philippoussis faces second seed Dominik Hrbaty.