Henman to face Latvian teenager

Tim Henman will play Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the French Open, which begins at Roland Garros on Sunday.

If he wins, and beats 25th seed Robin Soderling or Albert Montanes in the second round, the British number two could then take on reigning two-time champion Rafael Nadal in round three.

Gulbis, 18, is a talented right-hander who has shot up the rankings since turning professional in 2005. He ended 2006 ranked 139th position in the world, and is currently 84th in the charts.

He has already won challenger events in Besancon and Sarajevo this year.

Henman, who has been troubled by knee problems this season, has slipped to 52nd in the world after a poor start to 2007. He has yet to win even a set in his two matches on clay this year.

He was dumped out of the Masters event in Monte Carlo in April at the first-round stage by Juan Carlos Ferrero, and suffered the same fate at the hands of Nicolas Almagro in Rome earlier this month.

Henman chose not to compete in the recent Masters event in Hamburg in a bid to fine-tune his preparations for Roland Garros.

The highest-ranked British player in Paris, Henman's best performance in the French Open came in 2004 when he lost to Guillermo Coria in the semi-final.

The Oxford-born 32-year-old lost to Russia's Dimitri Tursunov in four sets in the second round last year.