Tennis:British interest in the men's singles at the French Open ended today when Tim Henman was beaten 6-4 6-3 6-2 by Ernests Gulbis, an 18-year-old Latvian ranked 84th in the world.
Henman, a semi-finalist in 2004 but who has fallen to 53 in the
rankings, was second-best throughout and Gulbis romped to his first
grand slam match victory.
The 32-year-old was the lone Briton in the draw after their
number one player, Andy Murray, was forced to miss the tournament
because of a right wrist injury.
Henman dismissed any talk of retiring after questions were naturally raised about his future.
"It would be easy to throw in the towel but it does not enter my mind," said Henman, who has really struggled for form in an injury-plagued 2007. "When you come to analysing things, you can either give up or work through these things.
"There is no magic secret. You just have to get on with it. I have to find a way of replicating my practice form into a match. That's easier said than done.
"But there's still a lot of excitement and expectation there. And I still enjoy competing."
In three clay-court clashes this year, Henman has not even won a set.
Swashbuckling Chilean Fernando Gonzalez will not get a chance to
repeat his Australian Open heroics after he slumped to a 6-2 6-2
6-4 defeat by Radek Stepanek in his first round match.
On a day of upsets, the fifth seed followed third seed Andy
Roddick out of the tournament after he failed to offer any form of
challenge to Czech Stepanek.
After wasting three match points at 5-3 in the third set,
Stepanek made no mistake in the next game and closed out the
victory in one hour 52 minutes to the delight of his fiancee
Martina Hingis, who was watching courtside.
Gonzalez had led a charmed life in Melbourne to reach
the final of the season's first grand slam but in Paris, his
best showing remains a quarter-final appearance in 2003.