Bjorkman, O8217;Brien upset

DULUTH Georgia, May 1: Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Alex O'Brien were upset in second-round play yesterday in the 328,000 AT and T chall...

DULUTH Georgia, May 1: Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Alex O8217;Brien were upset in second-round play yesterday in the 328,000 AT and T challenge.

The second-seed Bjorkman, one of the hottest players on tour with 26 match victories in 1997, fell to hard-serving Sandon Stolle of Australia 4-6, 7-6 7-2, 6-2. O8217;Brien, seeded sixth, fell to Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, 7-6 8-6, 6-4.

Chris Woodruff was the only seeded player to advance into the third round. The eighth seed had little trouble beating Javier Frana of Argentina 7-6 7-2, 6-2.

Also Wednesday, Gilbert Schaller of Austria defeated Steve Campbell 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Campbell, a qualifier, defeated third-seeded Jim Courier in the first round.

Medvedev, Rosset win

MUNICH: Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine and Marc Rosset of Switzerland won their first-round matches yesterday at the 425,000 BMW Open tennis tournament in Munich.

Medvedev needed 67 minutes to oust Germany8217;s Daniel Elsner in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. Elsner, making his ATP debut on a wild card, was the junior champion at the 1996 US Open and 1997 Australian Open, but was no match for the experienced Medvedev.

In other matches Alberto Beratasegui of Spain defeated Buillermo Canas of Argentina 6-7 8-10, 6-1, 6-4, and Frederik Fetterlein of Denmark defeated Roberto Carretero of Spain 7-6 7-4 6-4.

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Martin Sinner of Germany defeated fourth-seeded Felix Mantilla of Spain 4, 5-7, 6-4, 4-0 after Mantilla was disqualified for after two warnings for throwing his racquet several times and loudly complaining about line calls.

Renzo Furlan of Italy beat Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Easy for Pierce

HAMBURG: Sixth seed Mary Pierce of France, playing in cool drizzle at the 450,000 Rexona Open tennis tournament, easily defeated Patty Schnyder of Switzerland yesterday in a first-round match 6-1, 6-1.

Germany8217;s Barbara Rittner had a harder time against fellow German Sandra Kloesel, fighting through three sets to take the match 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

Coetzer moves up

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BOL: Top-seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa advanced to the second round of the 107,500 Croatian Bol ladies open tennis tournament yesterday, easily defeating Melanie Schnell of Austria, 6-1, 6-2.

The diminutive Coetzer, ranked 10th by the WTA, cruised to the next round with superb ground strokes and precise ball-placement.