LESS than 24 hours after knocking out Roger Federer, Guillermo Canas was eliminated by former No. 1 Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-4 in the third round of the Pacific Life Open in California, the United States, on Monday.

Canas had little time to celebrate his stunning two-set defeat of Federer, which ended the Swiss star’s bid for a fourth successive Indian Wells Masters title and ended his winning streak at 41, five short of tying Guillermo Vilas’ Open era record.

Moya, the 1999 runner-up here and still a threat at 30 with runs to the finals in Sydney and Acapulco this year, had a handle on his Argentine opponent, who lost in qualifying but made the main draw when Xavier Malisse withdrew.

Also in the third round, Andy Roddick served 18 aces, one clocked at 147 mph, on his way to a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Olivier Rochus.

Julien Benneteau of France bounced another highly ranked American, No. 6 James Blake, out of the tournament with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) victory in their third-round match.

Janko Tipsarevic, who had defeated Lleyton Hewitt on Sunday, also lost his third-round match. David Ferrer eliminated him 6-1, 6-3.

No. 2 Rafael Nadal beat Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-4 in their night match, running his record to 5-0 against his fellow Spaniard.

Roddick said having Federer, who has won the tournament the past three years, eliminated is both a plus and a minus.

“I want to beat Roger. Obviously, it helps out everybody, it takes the toughest player out of the draw,” Roddick said. “But at the same time, I’m going to have to figure it out one of these times anyway.

“You can’t sit back and hope that he loses because that’s not going to happen a lot.”

“It was just a normal loss, like I’ve had about 100 times on tour,” Federer said Sunday after his loss. “That’s normal to tennis. I have no problems. He played very well. I missed my chances. I think he played very well and I didn’t think I was playing poorly at all. So it’s OK.”

Federer had arrived at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden having won seven consecutive tournaments and was considered an odds-on favorite to break the record of 47 straight matches won by Guillermo Vilas of Argentina 30 years ago. Federer hadn’t lost since falling to Andy Murray on Aug. 16, 2006, in Cincinnati.

“It’s no pressure at all because I take it match by match,” Federer said of the streak.

(SD-Agencies)