Haas rallies at Clay Court Champs.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tommy Haas of Germany rallied to beat defending champion Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 Thursday night in a second-round match at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships.

Granollers' loss left the tournament without a seeded player in the quarter-finals, which hadn't happened in the clay court tournament since pro tennis went to the open era in 1968.

The sixth-seeded Granollers, who beat James Blake in last year's finals, broke Haas in the fifth game of the opening set during a string when Haas was consistently hitting errors.

Haas broke Granollers in the fourth and eighth games of the second set.

What was Haas thinking at that point?

"A lot of things you don't want to know about," he said.

Haas was broken in the third game of the final set but he broke right back. Haas broke Granollers again in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead by running down a drop shot and returning it to the side court, where Granollers hit it weakly out of bounds.

Haas won it at the second match point in the ninth game when Granollers returned a serve over the baseline.

"It's not easy playing here, to be honest," Haas said. "The balls are hard and the clay is slippery. If you don't hit the ball clean, it flies away."

Granollers got Haas on the third break point in the third game of the final set, but it wasn't enough.

"I don't think I played my best, but Tommy played very good," Granollers said.

Earlier, Evgeny Korolev of Russia fought through rough wind and a comeback try by Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain for a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in the second round.

Korolev had control of the match until midway through the second set, then had to use a tiebreaker to get past Gimeno-Traver.

Bjorn Phau of Germany, who eliminated second-seeded Mardy Fish in the first round, also needed a tiebreaker to beat Scoville Jenkins of the United States 6-4, 7-6 (2) in another second-round match.

Guillermo Canas of Argentina played Taylor Dent in later second-round matches.

Korolev had control of the match until midway in the second set and then had to use a tiebreaker to get past Gimeno-Traver.

Korolev, a finalist this year at Del Ray Beach, emerged from three straight service breaks to take the first set.

Korolev broke Gimeno-Traver with a hard forehand winner in the sixth game but the Spaniard broke back in the seventh game that included two double faults by Korolev. Korolev then broke back again and served out the set.

Neither player lost a point on his serve until the seventh game of the second set when Gimeno-Traver hit a backhand error and eventually was broken.

Korolev was serving for the match in the 10th game but lost his serve and had to win it at the third match point of the tiebreaker on Gimeno-Traver's forehand error.

Jenkins came within one point of forcing the match to a third set when he had Phau at set point in the ninth game of the second set.

Phau salvaged the game and ran away with the tiebreaker -- Jenkins double faulted to start it and was never in it from there on.