Norewgian Christian Ruud slumped to a stunning defeat by Brazilian Francisco Costa.

Ruud, seeded number three for the tournament, followed top seed Sargis Sargsian and number eight Dennis Van Sheppingen on to the XL scrapheap with a rapid 6-4, 6-1 defeat.

It means that just five seeds remain in the draw going into the fourth day of the competition -- one of them number two seed Richey Reneberg.

Reneberg arrived late on Tuesday from Stone Mountain, Georgia, where he was part of the United States' emotional Davis Cup victory over Russia, and came through his first match without due alarm.

Reneberg took four games to really warm to his task before reeling off four in a row to take the first set against lanky American David Witt 6-2.

And he showed his steel under pressure in the second set after Witt had broken serve for the first time for a 2-0 lead by breaking back immediately.

Neither player was totally on song, liberally mixing aces with double faults, but from then on games stayed with serve to force the match into a tie-break.

Witt remained with Reneberg to 4-4 but then an unforced error on the forehand on his own serve gave the second seed the advantage.

Reneberg followed with an ace and then accepted his first match point when Witt put a high backhand volley into the net.

Reneberg was back on court a couple hours later partnering Doug Flach for a doubles encounter with Brazilians Marcio Carlsson and Francisco Costa, but he needed treatment for a sore shoulder from the tournament trainer after his singles match.

However he showed no ill effects and after the Americans had lost the first set 6-2, they came back to win the next two 6-3, 6-0.

In other doubles action yesterday, the Washington brothers departed, beaten in three sets by Lars Jonsson and Mikael Pernfors. Elsewhere the German pair of Dirk Dier and Michael Kohlmann saw off Aussies Andrew Ilie and Todd Larkham in straight sets while Andrei Cherkasov and Rudolphe Gilbert completed their three-set victory over fourth-seeded Tom Nijssen and Greg Van Emburgh.

Marcelo Charpentier and Sebastien Prieto got a free passage into the second round after Sargis Sargsian and Mark Knowles withdrew.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro OUT OF ACTION -- Number three seed Christian Ruud of Norway (above) and Russia's Andrei Merinov (below) were both eliminated yesterday from the XL Bermuda Open at Coral Beach.