Unseeded Andy Murray interrupted the Masters Cup qualification progress of Ivan Ljubicic with a second-round upset win at the Madrid Masters Series Wednesday.

The Scotland teen, ranked 19th, held his nerve over more than 2hrs to eliminate his world No.3 opponent, firing his eighth ace of the match to win 6-4 3-6 6-3.

The defeat was a blow for Ljubicic, who came to Spain on the back of his indoor title win in Vienna on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Croat, who went down to Spain's Rafael Nadal a year ago in the title match after holding a two-sets-to-love lead, could have joined Roger Federer and Nadal in the season-ender at Shanghai next month had he reached a second consecutive final here.

"It was a great win," said Murray. "He's probably the second best in the world indoors after Federer. To beat the No.3 is huge for me. To win against him on his best surface is very exciting.

"It's more exciting to play someone in the top 10, a win like today is a great test for my game. I can see where my game is.

"I'm playing OK, not unbelievable. I'm playing well like I was during the (northern) summer. My body feels great and my attitude is much better than it was in Asia."

Ljubicic was not the only big-name victim. The winner of the Stockholm Open on Sunday, American James Blake, suffered his third consecutive opening defeat here, 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-5) to Kristof Vliegen.

The No.8 failed totally to back up his successful title defence in Stockholm, and he is yet to win a match here after defeats in 2002 and 2003.

Blake's game blew apart as he went down to the battling Belgian for the second time this season.

"When you're serving at 6-5 you should win the match," said the Masters Cup contender of a disappointing third set.

"He played a solid match. I made mistakes. This is not the way you want to go out. He played a good tiebreaker after that."

Blake can now only sit and watch nervously as the rest of the contenders take aim at places in next month's season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

And playing the waiting game is not something that Blake, winner of five titles this season, does easily.

"It's frustrating to be on the sidelines watching instead of being an active participant," said Blake, who is level on sixth in points with Tommy Robredo in the chase to China.

"I'm more nervous watching that playing. I probably won't watch any more matches.

"This makes Paris (the last event of the regular season) very important."

Meanwhile, Masters Cup candidate Fernando Gonzalez emerged from a dogfight against Paradorn Srichapahn from Thailand, the No.10 seed from Chile, snaring a 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 victory in nearly 2&3189;t hours.

Robby Ginepri, from the United States, dulled the season-ending qualification chances of Mario Ancic from Croatia with a 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) win.

Ancic stands provisional 10th in the eight-man race for Shanghai, with Germany's Tommy Haas pressing hard. Haas boosted his chances with a 6-3 7-6 (8-6) defeat of Czech Dominik Hrbaty.

(AFP October 19, 2006)