The Russian top seed's 3-6 6-3 6-3 defeat by 74th-ranked Armenian Sargis Sargsian at Queen's Club means he will drop out of number one spot when new rankings are announced next week.

Either Pete Sampras, who is playing at Queen's, or Pat Rafter, the top seed at Halle in Germany, will take over.

Earlier Croatian eighth seed and last year's Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic beat Bulgarian Orlin Stanoytchev 6-4 6-4, French 11th seed and 1997 Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline beat Australian Mark Woodforde 6-4 7-5 while 12th-seeded Australian Jason Stoltenberg ousted British hopeful Martin Lee 7-6 6-1.