Henman out in Vienna

Tim Henman was seeded second at the CA Trophy

Click here for Wednesday's results

Tim Henman's attempts to defend the CA Trophy in Vienna were brought to an early end when he lost in three sets to Argentine Guillermo Canas on Wednesday.

The second-seeded Brit started the second-round tie in confident fashion against the 23-year-old right-hander and wrapped up the first set 6-3 with little difficulty.

But Canas picked up his game in the second, using his strong forehand to good effect to take the set to a tie-break, which he won 7-4.

And the game hung in the balance throughout the decider before Canas triumphed in another tie-break 7-5 to go through to the quarter-finals.

"I dominated the first and half sets and then began to struggle," Henman said.

"I was pretty close to winning having one match point but not close enough."

Henman's defeat followed Greg Rusedski's heavy first round loss to Jiri Novak.

Rusedski, who won the title two years ago, never threatened his Czech opponent, eventually going down 6-2 6-2.

I played my usual indoor hard court match but this is even slower than clay

Greg Rusedski

In other results, Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic was knocked out by Michael Chang in three sets.

The American lost the opening set tie-break 5-7, but came back strongly to comfortably take the second and third sets 6-3 6-3.

And there was another surprise as top seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov crashed out in the first round.

The Russian, fresh from victory at the Kremlin Cup last week, went down 7-6 6-3 to Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic.

"It felt like we were playing with hockey pucks, the balls were that hard," said Kafelnikov.

"I felt fresh and I felt I was playing well enough to win another title but I was just unable to adjust to the conditions."

Rusedski and Novak had met only once before with exactly the same result, but that was on the clay of Monte Carlo two years ago.

Novak won clay-court titles in Munich and Gstaad this year, but the indoor conditions in Vienna were expected to favour Rusedski.

Kafelnikov could not repeat last week's form

It was the Czech who made the brighter start, quickly wrapping up the opening set.

And when Rusedski was broken in his third service game of the second set, the match was beyond the Briton.

"I played my usual indoor hard court match but this is even slower than clay," said Rusedski.

"I have to give credit where credit is due and Jiri did play an excellent match. He was just too good today.

"I gave it 100% and I thought my attitude was very positive but that is tennis sometimes."

Novak will meet Germany's Tommy Haas in the second round.

The number six seed went through against Jerome Golmard after the Frenchman retired with a knee injury at 3-0 down in the opening set.

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Results from Wednesday's action in the CA Trophy:

Second round:

Guillermo Canas (Arg) bt Tim Henman [2] (GB) 3-6 7-6 7-6

First round:
Michael Chang (US) bt Goran Ivanisevic (Cro) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3
Michel Kratochvil (Swi) bt Dominik Hrbaty (Svk) 7-6 7-5
Stefan Koubek (Aut) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 4-6 6-3 6-2
Bohdan Ulihrach (Cze) bt Yevgeny Kafelnikov [1] (Rus) 7-6 6-3
Jiri Novak (Cze) bt Greg Rusedski (GB) 6-2 6-2
Tommy Haas [6] (Ger) bt Jerome Golmard (Fra) 3-0 (retired injured)

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