Seventh seed Tim Henman's unhappy run at the Australian Open continued when he was upset 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 by Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the third round yesterday, ending British hopes in the tournament.
Henman surrendered a surprisingly one-sided match in just 126 minutes against Davydenko, who had never made itpast the second round in two previous visits to Melbourne but has now reached the round of 16 at a grand slam for the first time.
The 30-year-old admitted that he had been outplayed by 26th seed Davydenko after joining British qualifier Elena Baltacha as a third-round casualty.
Baltacha had become the first British woman since Clare Wood in 1991 to reach the last 32 but she was thrashed 6-1, 6-0 by Italian 15th seed Silvia Farina Elia on Friday.
"I heard Baltacha say she got her arse kicked yesterday and unfortunately I fell into the same bracket," Henman said. "I definitely didn't play my best but I certainly wasn't allowed to play the way I would have liked to."
Henman began badly when he shanked a forehand out of court to hand the speedy Davydenko a break of serve in the opening game to set the tone for a dismal display.
"It's not ideal to lose your serve in the first game. You've got to keep fighting and produce something a little bit better and hopefully it will turn around, but his level never dropped," a stunned Henman said.
One of the Briton's few bright moments came early in the second set when Henman, wrong-footed after a poor volley was punished, stuck his racket behind his back and luckily made enough contact to push the ball past Davydenko - but the contest quickly slipped away from the former French Open, Wimbledon and US Open semifinalist, who has played in Melbourne nine times since 1996 but has reached the fourth round only three times.
However, he vowed to return to Melbourne and improve that record.
"I'm not going to deny that this was definitely a bad day at the office," Henman said. "I want to do better than the fourth round.
"I don't think that's good enough. It's not going to deter me from coming back for a few more years to try and improve on that."
Davydenko will now take on 12th seed Guillermo Canas, who beat unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
