By Bill Scott Jul 10, 2008, 17:40 GMT
Gstaad, Switzerland - Nicolas Kiefer suffered a blow to his post-injury momentum, with the German forced to withdraw from his second round match on Thursday at the Allianz Suisse Open due to a foot injury.
The 31-year-old sixth seed was just getting his game back to top level competition after missing a year from summer 2006 with a wrist injury.
His unexpected exit came after injuring himself in doubles and handed a place in the quarter-finals to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Number three Russian Mikhail Youzhny made a successful start as he defeated Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-3, 6-2.
Romanian Victor Hanescu overcame a massive 28 aces from fourth seed Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (13-11), taming Croatia's 2.06-metre man-mountain in two and a half hours.
Hanescu will on Friday play French qualifier Jeremy Chardy, a winner over German Dominik Meffert 6-7 (17), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) a month after a surprise run into the fourth round of the French Open.
Kiefer had hoped for better luck after playing high-altitude Gstaad for the first time in eight years following quarter-finals in 1997 and 1998.
The German lost in the Wimbledon third round to Rafael Nadal after reaching semi-finals in Halle and the Hamburg quarter-finals.
The walkover handed number 88 Garcia-Lopez his 15th win of the season against 13 defeats.
Despite his injury derailment, Kiefer is pleased with how his comeback season is progressing.
'I'm enjoying my tennis much more the second time around, I'm doing everything I can to win. The most important thing is to wake up healthy, give 100 percent and enjoy your game.'
Two other seeds were making second-round debuts after byes, with number three Russian Mikhail Youzhny facing Italian Flavio Cipolla and fourth-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic playing Victor Hanescu of Romania.
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