Davydenko ousted by Frenchman Simon in New Haven

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Aug 24 (Reuters) Tired looking top seed Nikolay Davydenko suffered a surprise defeat in the third round of the ATP event in New Haven yesterday, beaten 6-4 6-4 by Frenchman Gilles Simon.

The Russian, who came through a tough second-round match on Wednesday evening, made too many unforced errors and world number 40 Simon took advantage.

''I think now I need to recover mentally,'' Davydenko, who is seeded fourth at next week's US Open.

''I need to be physically good because they are five-set matches but I need to get confidence back.'' Simon, seeded 13, who will play fellow Frenchman and fifth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu in the quarter-finals, as the tournament tries to get back on schedule after losing the bulk of Tuesday's play to rain.

''It was close to the perfect match for me,'' the Frenchman said.

''I played my best tennis even when it was hard to finish the first and second set. I made some winners and I was very aggressive, so for me that was a wonderful match.'' Second seed Tommy Robredo was another casualty, losing 6-3 6-3 to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, who will now play American wildcard Mardy Fish, a 6-7 6-3 6-0 winner over Argentine Jose Acasuso.

Third seed James Blake almost went the same way but recovered just in time to beat Argentine 16th seed Agustin Calleri 3-6 7-6 6-1.

Blake will play Spanish 12th seed Fernando Verdasco, who beat sixth seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic will play Russian Igor Andreev after both men rallied from a set down in the third round.

Karlovic beat former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 4-6 6-4 7-5, while Andreev upset fourth seed David Ferrer of Spain 3-6 7-6 6-4.

In the women's event, Hungarian teenager Agnes Szavay continued her superb run with a 6-1 6-4 win over Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine to reach the semi-finals.

Szavay beat second seed Daniela Hantuchova in the previous round and now meets fourth seed Dinara Safina of Russia or Greek Eleni Daniilidou.

REUTERS BJR PM1034