Second seed Ferrero dumped out in Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 23 (Reuters) Second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero span out of the Buenos Aires Open despite winning the second of his round robin matches.

The former world number one yesterday followed top seed David Nalbandian, knocked out on Wednesday, and third seed Agustin Calleri, who withdrew from injury, in making a quick exit from the 445,000 dollars tournament.

Spaniard Ferrero overcame lucky loser Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-3 in 64 minutes, Dlouhy having replaced Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti who withdrew through injury.

However, although Ferrero finished level with Nicolas Devilder on two points, the Frenchman qualified for the quarter-finals on the head-to-head record.

Fourth seed Nicolas Almagro beat Stefano Galvani of Italy 6-4 7-6 to win Group Three and earn a quarter-final against Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela, who went through with a perfect record by beating Russia's Igor Andreev 3-6 7-5 6-3.

Peru's Luis Horna, winner in Vina del Mar three weeks ago, reached the last eight by beating Argentina's Guillermo Canas 4-6 6-2 6-2 in a match between two players who had previously beaten Nalbandian.

Canas, who returned to action last year after completing a 15-month doping ban, won the Costa do Sauipe tournament in Brazil last week.

Reuters AY DB1015