Henman teams up with Kuerten in quest for confidence

Tim Henman smiled ruefully when asked whether he or Gustavo Kuerten would be covering the net when they team up to play doubles for the first time at the Italian Open tonight. "I would have thought me," Henman said, "but with some of the volleys I've missed, it makes you wonder."

The serve-volleying Englishman and the Brazilian ground-stroker seem an odd couple on the clay in their quest to recover confidence ahead of the two prime Grand Slam tournaments of their year: Wimbledon in Henman's case, the French Open in Kuerten's.

What they have in common, apart from losing to Argentinian opponents in the first round of singles here, is that the major events are looming and time is running out, hence their eagerness to join forces in the hope of gaining match practice.

Kuerten, the 14th seed, was beaten yesterday by Gaston Gaudio, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, having had two break points for 5-5 in the concluding game. The unseeded Henman lost in straight sets to Guillermo Coria in the opening match on Centre Court on Monday, having felt exhausted as early as the fourth game.

Henman has won only two of his eight matches this year after recovering from surgery to his right shoulder. Kuerten had a forlorn time last year after surgery to his right hip in February. He made an encouraging start this season, winning a title in New Zealand and advancing to the final of the Masters Series event in Indian Wells in March, losing to Lleyton Hewitt, the world No 1.

Since the start of the clay-court season, however, the three-times French Open champion has suffered two ominous set-backs. He was beaten in three sets by Sweden's Magnus Norman in the second round at the Monte Carlo Open, after leading, 6-1, 5-2, and was unable to make the most of his opportunities against Gaudio here yesterday. In between, he won two matches in Barcelona before losing in straight sets to Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain, the form player on clay.

Asked about his prospects of a fourth French Open title, Kuerten said: "I think it would be bad if I approach it like that. It would be hoping too far already from my reality. I need to play many more matches and feel my way into the competition more often, day by day. So tomorrow I will keep myself in the routine: to wake up and prepare and get ready for one match, even if it is not a singles match Hopefully, we will be able to play a few matches in the doubles."

The match in question pits the wild cards Henman and Kuerten against two Italian wild cards, Massimo Bertolini and Giorgio Galimberti. The winners will play the Argentinian partnership of Coria and Agustin Calleri in the second round.

"We have to try and take advantage of the opportunity," Henman said. "When I look at 'Guga' and think about the amount of time it took him to come back after hip surgery, it helps put things in perspective. I'm not going to wait for things to happen, but I've got to be realistic that it will take time."

Meanwhile, in the main event, Ferrero, the second seed, came through a difficult opening set against Mark Philippoussis to defeat the Australian qualifier, 7-6, 6-4. Roger Federer, the Swiss fourth seed, fresh from winning the Munich title, overcame a strong second set challenge to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu, of France, 6-3, 7-5. Among the first-round losers were Paradorn Srichaphan, the ninth seed from Thailand, and Sebastien Grosjean, the French 13th seed.