LONDON, June 11: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes fought tooth and nail as his wont but failed to stop third seed Goran Ivanisevic from vanquishing him 6-7 (1-7), 3-6 in the second round of the Queen's Grass Court Tournament, here, today.

Paes, bronze medallist at 1996 Atlanta Olympics, matched his formidable opponent and forced the Croat to a first set tie-break, but faltered therefater to lose the set as Ivansevic prevailed in the tie-break 7-1.In the second set, however, the never-say-die Indian was pulverized by Ivanisevic to post a straight set win.

Top-seeded Pete Sampras, playing his first singles match on grass this year, beat Javier Frana 6-3, 6-2 today to move into the third round.Seeking to regain the title he won in 1995, the world's top-ranked player needed less than an hour to down the Argentine in straight sets.

Earlier on Tuesday, Swiss fifth seed Marc Rosset and four other seeds were were sent packing. The giant Rosset capitulated 7-6 (6-1) 6-3 against lowly-ranked Frenchman Jerome Golmard.

Rosset was joined on the sidelines by 10th seed Jan Siemerink, 12th seed Cedric Pioline, number 13 Alex O'Brien and number 15 Marc-Kevin Goellner as surprise early exits.

Britain's fourth seed Tim Henman scraped into the third round fighting back from a set down to eventually edge compatriot Andrew Richardson 4-6 6-3 6-2.Dutchman Siemerink was dismissed by Stephane Simian of France 6-4 6-0 while in an all-France affair Pioline was eliminated by qualifier Jean-Philippe Fleurian 7-5 6-3.

British wild card Martin Lee, ranked 500th in the world, provided a big shock by seeing off world number 34 O'Brien of the United States 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4.

Goellner, a semifinalist in 1995, fell to New Zealand's Brett Steven 4-6 6-1 6-4. Sixth seed Australian Mark Philippoussis made hard work of American Jonathan Stark before eventually advancing 7-6 (12-10) 3-6 6-3.

Last week's French Open semifinalists Filip Dewulf and Pat Rafter had very different destinies on the West London grass. Rafter, the ninth-seeded Australian, ran through Israel's Eyal Ran with the minimum of fuss 7-5 6-2 while Belgian Dewulf was brought crashing back down to earth with a 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 6-2 defeat by 106th-ranked Canadian Daniel Nestor.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.