David Nalbandian came out the better Argentine between two losers from Sunday's Red Group round-robin matchs, beating compatriot Guillermo Coria 7-5, 6-4 Tuesday and shattering the fourth seed's hope of reaching the year-end Masters Cup semifinals.

With both of the players failing to tightly hold their own serves, the grouping match turned into a lackluster lasting one hour, 47 minutes and 29 seconds.

Coria double-faulted for 14 times to easily give up his game, and Nalbandian cracked 27 winners against 30 unforced errors, as the second set has been played in a style of breaking and being broken.

Having lost his Masters opener in straight sets to Ivan Ljubicic, Coria, the only man in Red Group losing both of his first two out of three-all round-robin matches, has been ruled outof the reach of the semifinals as top two finishers from each group will be given the berth.

The 23-year-old Nalbandian, ranked as No. 3 Argentine in the world following No. 6 Coria and No. 9 Gaston Gaudio, has been one of three players during year to reach quarterfinals or better in at least three Grand Slam events besides world number one Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.