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Coria and Henman bomb out

Guillermo Coria returns to Yu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan in their second round match at the Stella Artois tennis Championships at The Queen's Club, London. Yu won 6-2, 6-4. PHOTO: REUTERS

French Open finalist Guillermo Coria and semifinalist Tim Henman lost their opening round matches Wednesday at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament.

The fourth-seeded Henman, a grass-court specialist and four-time Wimbledon semifinalist, was eliminated by Slovakia's Karol Beck 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (6) after holding a match point.

"I'm disappointed right now, but in the context of my Wimbledon preparation, I don't think it will have any bearing because I'm playing very, very well," Henman said. "If I had won one more point, it shouldn't dictate how I feel about my performance."

Coria, who gave up a two-set lead against fellow Argentine Gaston Gaudio in the French final, lost to 102nd-ranked Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) of Taiwan 6-2, 6-4.

Two other seeded players were eliminated. No. 12 Robby Ginepri of the US lost 6-3, 6-2 to South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik, and two-time Wimbledon semifinalist Todd Martin, No. 16, was defeated 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2 by Croatian Mario Ancic. Ancic plays top-seeded Andy Roddick in the third round.

Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan celebrates beating Argentina's Guillermo Coria at The Queen's Club, London. PHOTO: REUTERS

Former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, a three-time Queen's champion, beat Marc Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-2.

Fifth-seeded Sebastien Grosjean of France beat Australian qualifier Todd Reid 6-3, 6-1, No. 15 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic ousted Italy's Davide Sanguinetti 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan downed South Africa's Wesley Moodie 6-3, 6-2 in other second-round matches at the Wimbledon warmup.

Roddick and Andre Agassi were beaten by Australians Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley 6-4, 7-6 (6) in their second-round doubles match Wednesday.

Agassi, the 1992 Wimbledon champ, lost his opening singles match Tuesday in three sets to Russia's Igor Andreev, then didn't show up for his postmatch news conference. He was fined US$1,000 by the tour Wednesday.

Agassi has failed to win a match in three straight tournaments, the first time that's happened since August 1997.

Henman, seeded fourth, surprisingly reached the semis on clay at the French and was expected to go far at Queen's as he prepares for another shot at the Wimbledon title.

Coria lost the last five games of the first set and was broken in the seventh game of the second set. He didn't earn a break point against Lu, playing his first ATP tour match of the season.

"It's difficult to adapt to the grass after Paris," Coria said. "It's so fast and the footwork is so different. I know I don't have the best chance at Wimbledon, but I want to try and play well there."

Ian Flanagan, a British player ranked 866th, beat Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6 (4), 6-3 a day after upsetting Mark Philippoussis. He meets Grosjean next.

DFS CLASSIC

American qualifier Shenay Perry pulled off an upset at the grass-court tournament Wednesday, beating former champion Jelena Dokic in straight sets.

The 19-year-old Perry, ranked 88th, won 6-4, 7-6 (4) over a player who won the tournament in 2002 and reached the Wimbledon semifinals four years ago.

"It's the biggest win of my career, so I hope to move on to bigger things," Perry said.

Perry, of Coral Springs, Florida, adapted well to the grass and played occasional serve-and-volley tennis. She played solidly in the tiebreaker to close out the match after a Dokic double fault handed her a crucial edge.

"She hit the ball really flat and deep," Perry said. "I tried to play offense as well, but I played pretty good defense, too."

At one stage in the second set after serving three double faults to drop a service game, the fifth-seeded Dokic threw down her racket and broke it. She escaped without a code violation.

"I was annoyed because I had a chance to win," she said. "It's more annoying to have a chance to win and losing rather than just getting beaten."

Daniela Hantuchova, a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist, and top-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia also lost in the second round. After dropping the first seven games to France's Tatiana Golovin, Hantuchova quit halfway through the second set, citing a respiratory ailment.

Petrova was ousted 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 by Japan's Shinobu Asagoe, last year's finalist. Petrova double faulted to give Asagoe the decisive break in the seventh game of the final set.

Also out was Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, who retired from her match with Japan's Akiko Morigami with an Achilles strain.

Defending champion Magdalena Maleeva rallied from a set and two breaks down to beat Germany's Anca Barna and reach the third round. The fourth-seeded Bulgarian, once ranked No. 4 in the world, trailed 6-3, 3-0 before recovering to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Gerry Weber Open

Defending champion Roger Federer needed barely more than an hour to beat Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 6-1 in the second round, improving his grass court record to 14-0 over the past two years.

Federer opened the match with an ace and raced to a 4-0 lead before lapses such as hitting long and putting a easy volley into the net enabled Youzhny to break the Swiss and get back into the match at 4-2.

Federer recovered on his next service game, losing only a point and then aggressively finished the set by handcuffing Youzhny by a ripping groundstroke and forcing the Russian to dump a forehand into the net.
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