Roger Federer will have to try again. Just a little harder this time round. When Federer went into his match against Guillermo Canas, he was just 6 matches away from breaking the record held by another Argentine Guillermo Vilas for winning the most consecutive matches. 

However his 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Canas in the third round of the Pacific Life Open meant that he will have to start from the scratch to attain one of the few remaining records that are yet to be broken by the Swiss. Canas, who was termed as the "lucky loser" after qualifying when Xavier Malisse withdrew, was playing in his first Masters Series since he was suspended by the ATP when he was tested positive for using a banned substance in 2005.

Canas, who was once ranked No. 8 in the rankings, started the match positively and was up 6-5 in the first set. He managed to hold his serve and win the first set. Immediately after the set, Federer called on an ATP Tour trainer for an undisclosed problem with his feet.

However Canas went on to win the second set convincingly, thereby chalking his second victory in three matches against the Swiss master. Federer's loss has now opened up the tournament, with no clear favorites. His loss set up a bad day for the top seeds with Dmitry Tursunov (20), Mardy Fish (21), Marat Safin (23), Dominic Hrbaty (24) and Radek Stepanek (25) all going out of the tournament.

Meanwhile in the women's singles, defending champion Maria Sharapova managed to defeat Nathalie Dechy of France 7-5, 6-2. Sharapova said that she is still looking to get into the groove after missing out of action since early February.

"I think that's to be expected. When you don't compete for that amount of time, it's normal. I definitely feel like these matches are getting the rough stuff out of the way. It's just good to be back on court and being in some tight situations. I miss that after a while", she said.