Capriati advances but Henman exits

Defending champion Jennifer Capriati fumbled her way past Amy Frazier 6-4, 6-3 and into the French Open third round on Thursday, despite a patchy performance punctuated by unforced errors.

But Tim Henman was made to pay for his sloppy showing as the sixth seed was ejected by Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Andre Agassi looked more impressive in his centre-court clash with David Sanchez and triumphed when the Spaniard retired injured while Agassi was leading 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

The fourth seed, champion here in 1999, could next face another Spaniard in Tommy Robredo.

"Three sets is three sets... it is not the full test, but I felt pretty good out there," he said.

If Capriati was never really in danger during her victory against the 61st-ranked Frazier, neither was she at her best during the clumsy 69-minute contest.

One statistic summed up the match -- 14 breaks of serve in 19 games.

"With the (rainy) weather, we're not having a lot of practice time. It'll get better," she said.

"My serve sometimes is not consistent although overall I think it's been okay."

UNBEATEN RUN

Undoubtedly the cloudy weather and humidity from previous days made the Philippe Chatrier court slow and heavy, not favouring attacking tennis.

But it was overall an inconsistent performance from the Australian Open champion, even though she eventually obtained a predictable fourth victory in four encounters with Frazier.

She also took her unbeaten run at Roland Garros to nine matches.

Capriati should have a much easier task in the next round as she will meet Australian Evie Dominikovic, ranked a modest 111th in the world.

Sixteenth seed Barbara Schett stumbled, however, the Austrian losing 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 to American Chanda Rubin.

It was better news for the 17th seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand. She advanced with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Jana Kandarr.

Henman's careless defeat was a particularly disappointing one for the Briton as he had wanted to settled an old score with Malisse.

In their only previous meeting at the 2001 U.S. Open, the Belgian also beat Henman in a tough five setter -- a defeat which Henman found difficult to digest as Malisse had just taken up the services of the Briton's former long-time coach David Felgate.

Despite Felgate being out of the equation now, Malisse still dominated his higher-ranked opponent as Henman failed to fire on the slow, red clay.

"He's a tough player and you have to give him credit for that," a stony-faced Henman said afterwards.

"I am very, very disappointed right now."