Britain's top two tennis players have been bundled out of the Olympic singles tournament with clear-cut first-round losses.
Tim Henman’s Olympic dream ended in the most disappointing fashion, while Greg Rusedski, whose outburst yesterday on the parlous state of the game in Britain caused a stir, provided some dismal form of his own.
Henman, the British No 1, was victim of a slaughter in the sun as he lost 6-3, 6-2 to Karol Kucera, of Slovakia, in just one hour and 23 minutes. The conditions were tricky with a gusting wind and a Centre Court Olympic stadium which contained myriad disruptions, including mobile phones, crying babies and fans shuffling to take their seats. Even so Henman began well, pressurising the Kucera serve, but he could not take advantage of three break points in the third game of the first set.
From that point, the unforced errors flowed, allowing Kucera to break serve in the eighth game when a Henman approach floated long. Kucera served out for the set and the signs remained ominous when Henman’s first service game in the second set went to five deuces.
An inspirational two-handed backhand from Kucera allowed the Slovakian, whose coach Miloslav Mecir won the Olympic title in Seoul in 1988, to break serve in the third game of the second set. But it was a couple of Henman gifts, a double fault and another wretched forehand, which gave Kucera another break of serve in the seventh game.
In all, it was a day on which Henman never possessed the imagination or the precision to trouble Kucera who went on to wrap up the match in routine style.
Rusedski, the British No 2, joined Henman and Barry Cowan on the first-round scrapheap with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by Arnaud Clement, of France, in just 58 pitiful minutes. It completed a miserable 48 hours for British tennis but Rusedski could have no complaints.
He was handed a lesson in the art of baseline tennis by a man who was fresh and confident after his US Open win over Andre Agassi three weeks ago. Clement simply passed Rusedski at will as the Briton continued a kamikaze policy of chipping and charging the net on the Olympic No 1 show court.
The Frenchman, however, was also helped by the rust which still clings to the Rusedski serve after his six-week lay-off with a foot injury which only saw him return at Flushing Meadows.
It was a double fault which broke the big left-hander’s service in the fourth game and another which helped Clement break again in the eighth to clinch the first set.
With the afternoon sunshine melting and a chilly, gusting breeze getting up, Rusedski was truly out in the cold. His game showed signs of improvement in the second set but Clement was faster, fitter and mentally sharper, his deft flicks and lobs making Rusedski look positively ponderous.
The end was almost a mercy, Clement breaking the Rusedski serve in the eighth game with two superb passing shots and holding his own for a commanding victory.
In defeat, the Britons were at least in good company. Marat Safin, the US Open champion and top seed, was beaten 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 by Fabrice Santoro, of France, in the tournament’s biggest shock. Santoro has now beaten the new world No 1 in all five of their encounters.
