Henman's Olympic dreams shattered

Henman was thrown off course by Kucera's groundstrokes

Tim Henman saw his Olympic hopes dashed in sorry fashion, as Karol Kucera completed a straight sets victory in the tennis.

British No.1 Henman was confident of a strong run in the men's singles and was expected to prosper against his unseeded opponent, who has suffered a slump in form this season.

But Kucera produced an inspired display to wrap up a comfortable 6-3 6-2 win.

Seventh seed Henman, a silver medallist in the doubles at the last Olympics, started well enough and had three break points on Kucera's serve in the third game of the match.

Karol Kucera wraps up a resounding win

But he failed to make any of them count and it proved costly as the Slovak suddenly found his range with his booming returns.

And the Henman serve came under increasing pressure as the first set went on.

Kucera made the breakthrough in the eighth game and then landed an ace on set point to take the first set 6-3 after 38 minutes on court.

Henman, who struggled to come to terms with the strong winds on court, managed to save break points on his serve in the first game of the second set.

Break time

But he had no answer to his opponent's powerful groundstrokes and he was broken in his next service game, as three searing backhands gave Kucera a 2-1 lead.

It wasn't my best performance but I don't feel I could have done too much about it - I have to be realistic and Karol was too good for me

  Tim Henman

There was no way back for Henman and another break allowed Kucera to romp into the second round.

"A loss is a loss and I don't like losing," was Henman's verdict. "It wasn't my best performance but I don't feel I could have done too much about it. I have to be realistic and Karol was too good for me.

"He kept the pressure on me all the time and every game I won was a real battle.

"He didn't give me any cheap points and that's definitely the best he's ever played against me. There wasn't a chink in his armour I could exploit.

"I wanted to do well here and I came in playing well. It's not the best result, I'm not trying to disguise that but in the big picture we have to make a continual improvement."

Another seed fell by the wayside when Chile's Marcelo Rios was beaten by Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta, 6-7 (8-10) 6-4 7-5.

Australia's Andrew Ilie lost to Fernando Vicente of Spain 6-3 6-3 much to his disappointment.

"I'm very disappointed, not only for me," said Ilie.

"I'm really disappointed that I couldn't bring more of a tennis game for those that supported me. I couldn't come up with the goods on the day."

American Jeff Tarango comprehensively beat Diego Camacho of Bolivia while and Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom defeated 1996 bronze medallist Leander Paes 6-2 6-4.

Tarango's compatriot Michael Chang was beaten 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 by Canada's Sebatien Lareau who is ranked 125th in the world.

Spanish number-six seed Alex Corretja beat Croatian Goran Ivanisevic 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-2) and 10th seed Franco Squillari of Argentina fell to Karim Alami of Morocco 6-4 7-6 (7-5).