I was horrendous, admits beaten Henman

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski suffered second-round defeats at the Cincinnati Masters to leave their US Open preparations in disarray.

Fourth seed Henman lost 7-6, 6-2 to Fernando Gonzalez, of Chile, and Rusedski was beaten 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 by Spain's Tommy Robredo.

These setbacks come only two weeks before the US Open starts in New York and the British No 1 and 2, who are short of match practice, now have no alternative other than to spend endless hours on the practice courts.

Henman, who put out defending champion Gustavo Kuerten in the first round, led 4-1 in the first set but was unable to sustain his form as Gonzalez, ranked 39 in the world, produced a string of winners.

Henman finished the match with a double fault and said: "I can't begin to think when I last played that badly. It was horrendous. I'd love to say that I was ill or that I didn't try but I was trying on every point."

Rusedski was also below par and admitted: "I didn't play great. He played very solid and that was the difference."

World No 1 Lleyton Hewitt had another easy match, progressing to the third round after only 18 minutes when his opponent David Sanguinetti retired at 5-0 down.