Henman and Agassi suffer a bad clay day

Tim Henman said he was exhausted after four games. Andre Agassi set off like a train and finished like a drain. The two first-round losers acknowledged that they did not do themselves justice on Centre Court here on a scorching opening day at the Italian Open. Neither man blamed the heat, saying: "It was beautiful out there."

It was certainly a beautiful day for their opponents. Guillermo Coria, the 21-year-old Argentinian world No 16, out-played Henman on the clay. The unseeded British No 1 was unable to muster so much as a break point as Coria's solid serving, flowing ground-strokes and economy of movement took him to a smooth 6-2, 6-1 victory after 87 minutes.

But that was merely the warm-up. David Ferrer, a 21-year-old Spaniard, ended a run of six consecutive first-round defeats by eliminating Agassi, the defending champion, 0-6, 7-6, 6-4, thereby curtailing the 33-year-old American's week-long reign as the oldest world No 1 in the history of the ATP rankings. Agassi was defending 500 ranking points. Lleyton Hewitt, the absent world No 2, dropped only 35 ranking points.

"Agassi has been my idol since I was 12," Ferrer said. "I never thought I would be on the same court as him." Having achieved that much, and recovered from a dreadful start, Ferrer made better use of the court and become only the second player this year to beat the great man from Las Vegas. The first was Sweden's Thomas Enqvist in he first round in Scottsdale, Arizona, in March.

"In the first set I was very nervous playing Agassi on Centre Court," Ferrer said. "After losing that set 6-0, I just told myself, 'Stay calm, relax, and enjoy'." Once he cast off the tense embarrassment of a star-struck no-hoper, Ferrer's play improved dramatically. At the same time, Agassi failed to capitalise on opportunities to kill the contest and lost his form. When the second set moved into a tie-break, Ferrer, ranked No 60, was making shots previously thought to be beyond his capability. He won the shoot-out, 7-3, finishing with the flourishes of a drop-shot and a lob.

As Agassi said: "He started playing much better, and I took my foot off the gas. I have nothing to complain about. The match was in my control at the start, and I took my foot off the gas. He fought hard and played better in the third set."

Agassi recovered after being broken to 1-2 in the final set, but was spraying balls wide of the court even before Ferrer broke decisively in the ninth game. It was the first time had Agassi had lost after winning an opening set 6-0, since he was disqualified when playing against his American compatriot Cecil Mamiit in San Jose in 1999 with the score at 6-0, 6-6.

Henman, who has won only two of his eight matches this year and is ranked No 28, has few worries about his shoulder, which has recovered after surgery, but plenty about the state of his game and his confidence. "As hard as it is for me [to play] on clay, you can't be as erratic as I was today," he said.

Most worrying was his loss of physical condition early in the match. "I was looking for energy at 3-1 in the first set," he said. "I was absolutely exhausted. I felt done. I've no explanation why. I don't know whether I've been practtising too much. But it's not a great feeling to have when you're playing a guy who's moving as well as Coria does and not making many mistakes."

He added: "It's a struggle at the moment, but you see other players coming back from injury, and it does take time."

* In Berlin, Japan's Ai Sugiyama became the first seed to bow out of the German Open. Sugiyama, the 13th seed, fell 6-1, 7-5 to the Swiss Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian. Earlier, Venus Williams pulled out with an abdominal strain.