Germany's Benjamin Becker upset third-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round of the Brisbane International, while fourth-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States advanced with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Adrian Mannarin of France in just over an hour.
"It's always good to get a win under your belt . . . it's not every day you beat a top 10 player," Becker said. "I had a good game plan and it worked well today."
Becker, ranked 53rd, raced through the first set in 30 minutes, with Verdasco failing to hold serve until the sixth game.
The 27-year-old Spaniard, runner-up here in 2009, recovered a break in the second set and leveled the match by winning the tiebreaker but dropped his opening service game in the third set and Becker didn't let him back into the match.
Radek Stepanek, the 2009 champion and runner-up here last year, beat Germany's Tobias Kamke 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, while South African Kevin Anderson beat Australia's Peter Luczak 6-4, 6-4 and veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement went down in straight sets to Richard Berankis of Lithuania.
Top-seeded woman Samamtha Stosur was upset by Australian Jarmila Groth 6-2, 6-4.
Groth broke Stosur's serve four times and saved three of the four break points she faced. She had seven aces in the second set and finished with nine.
Stosur, the French Open finalist, took a 4-1 lead in the second set. But she struggled with her serve as Groth reeled off five straight games to reach the quarterfinals.
Czech Lucie Safarova reached the women's quarterfinals for the third straight year when she beat second-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 in two-and-a-half hours.
The former Australian Open quarterfinalist is the girlfriend of 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych.
"Of course people ask me about Tomas, but so far it (Berdych's success) is motivating me to do better and to try to reach a better level of tennis," Safarova said.
Russian No. 5 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also won her second round match, beating Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 7-5.
In women's first-round matches, Italy's Roberta Vinci had a 6-2, 7-6 (2) win over American Christina McHale, a late replacement for Fed Cup champion Flavia Pennetta, who withdrew due to sickness.
