MOSCOW, February 6 (R-Sport) - Fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko was eliminated by Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Wednesday.

Davydenko, playing his first match of the tournament after a first-round bye, has now lost three of his last four matches following the 6-3, 7-6(8) defeat to world No. 67 Nieminen.

The Russian put up resistance in the second set to break Nieminen as he served for the match and then to save three match points, but he only managed to delay the inevitable.

Davydenko is the highest seed to fall so far in Montpellier. Ninth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu was earlier knocked out by Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky.

In the quarterfinals, Nieminen will play either Stakhovsky or the winner of the first-round clash between Japan’s Tatsuma Ito and local favorite Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

The Montpellier tournament is played on indoor hard courts and has a €410,000 prize fund.