Tennis
British Italian job ends as Henman, Murray ousted (Roundup)
By Bill Scott
May 7, 2007, 22:21 GMT

Rome - Nicolas Almagro advanced in the dry part of Monday's opening day to hand Tim Henman a fourth opening-round loss this season with a 7-5, 6-1 victory at the Rome Masters.

The British veteran was overwhelmed by the heavy conditions at the Foro Italico as well as the aggressive game of the 39th-ranked Spaniard.

Almagro moved into a match with top seed Roger Federer, who is bidding to overturn the clay superiority of Rafael Nadal, winner of the last two editions.

Rain moved in as forecast in late afternoon, stranding some matches on court.

Andy Murray joined Henman on the sidelines after his match was brought back onto court after an interruption of several hours.

The delays did the Scot no good as he lost to Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Lleyton Hewitt suffered a similar fate, going down after a delay to Spain's Oscar Hernandez 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 as the Australian played his first match since mid March.

Against Henman, Almagro managed 13 aces in victory, which left Henman wondering if should play again before the May 27 start of the French Open.

The 32-year-old Briton, a Roland Garros semi-finalist in 2004, admits that with a ranking of 50th, he might not gain an entry to next week's tournament in Hamburg.

Still, the veteran who lost the first six weeks of the season to injury, suggests that it might not be a bad thing, considering his current from on the slow red dirt.

'I'm not in,' he said of his current position in the entry, which is based upon ATP ranking. 'Maybe I'd be better off having some time to try and get in good physical condition, in a good frame of mind and just concentrate on Paris.'

Henman stands 0-2 on clay in 2007 after a similar defeat in Monte Carlo last month against former champion and clay ace Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The Briton has struggled since missing the Australian Open and much of the off-season with a combination of back and knee injuries.

Nevertheless, Henman remains an optimist.

'I can't deny that I've not had a lot of success recently. But if I felt like my game was in worse shape, then it would be much more concerning,' he said. 'I just have to be patient and try to handle it a bit better.

'I could easily throw in the towel, but I want to keep competing and work my way through it. If it (a turnaround) doesn't happen on the clay, then I still feel coming into the grass season that I'm in good shape,' he said.

Henman won his last title in 2003 and has a pair of Rome third- round placings to his credit at the Foro Italico.

In other first-round matches, Spain's 2001 winner Ferrero beat Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Russian Dmitry Tursunov won a marathon first-set tiebreaker on the way to a defeat of Swede Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-1.

Federer and two-time champion Rafael Nadal are seeded for another final between the best two in the world.

Nadal owns the last two trophies, beating Federer in a five-hour, five-set struggle in 2006 and overcoming Guillermo Coria of Argentina in 2005.