Rusedski suffers more woe on clay

Greg Rusedski's French Open preparations were hit today by a second-round loss to Wayne Ferreira at the Rome Masters Series event.

The British No 2 lost 6-4, 6-4 to the South African. It was his second early-round exit on clay following defeat in the first round in Monte Carlo three weeks ago.

British No 1 Tim Henman was due to play French qualifier Juliean Boutter in his second-round match today.

Henman will be looking to repeat the form that saw him beat Spain's Albert Costa 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round.

Henman said: "I needed to re-establish my mental attitude and I did that really, really well."

Jan Michael-Gam-bill became the third American seed to crash out of the first round as he lost 7-5, 6-4 to Guillermo Coria of Argentina.

The No14 seed's exit follows Pete Sampras' loss to Israel's Harel Levye 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 and Andre Agassi's defeat to Spain's Alex Calatrava 6-3, 6-3.

Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, the No 1 seed, beat Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 and No 2 seed, Russian Marat Safin, saw off Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.