French Open champion Gaston Gaudio became the highest men's seed to exit the US Open when he was ousted 6-3 2-6 6-4 6-4 by Swede Thomas Johansson today.
In a match containing nine service breaks, the ninth-seeded Argentine struggled to cope with the pace of the surface as Johansson held on to win in two hours, 31 minutes.
Johansson, who missed the event in 2002 and 2003 through injury, was in charge from the start as he raced through the first set.
Attempting to reach the third round for only the second time in six visits, Gaudio showed his fighting qualities to level the match. But Johansson hit back to win the third set on his eighth set point.
The Swede then broke serve in the fifth game of the fourth set, prompting Gaudio to rip his shorts apart in disgust, and Johansson held his nerve to serve out for victory.
Johansson will play either 19th seed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany or Cyril Saulnier of France in round three.