MONTE CARLO, APRIL 21: Tim Henman let a match point chance slip away as Brazil's Fernando Meligeni knocked the British third seed out of the $2.45 million Monte Carlo Open 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5 in the second round last night.Meligeni, ranked 51st in the world, proved his clay credentials in two hours 38 minutes. Henman, who had his winning opportunity late in the third set, duplicated his opening-match loss here from a year ago.In the third set, the Brazilian earned a break for 6-5 with a superb game as his 28 winners on the afternoon began to mount up. Henman took treatment from the trainer at the changeover for cramp in his left leg.A backhand cross-court yielded three match points for the South American Meligeni who advanced when Henman's backhand flew just wide.In the first set, Henman fell behind an early break against Meligeni, who reached the quarterfinals last week in Barcelona and the Brazilian moved to a 4-1 lead on centre court.The Briton's early effort was compromised by 13 unforcederrors in the first five games as the South American imposed his clay-court style on the Briton whom he had never faced.In other second round matches yesterday, America's Vince Spadea beat No.6 seed Karol Kucera of Slovakia 6-4, 6-3.While No.9 seed Marcelo Rios of Chile went down in the first set 0-6 to Romania's Andrei Pavel, but came back to win the game 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).Two other seeds moved into the second round. Tenth seed Albert Costa of Spain defeated Argentine Mariano Zabaleta 6-3, 6-4.While Thomas Enqvist, the No.12, served for a straight-set win, but had to go the full distance to overcome Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 in a match which earned a small measure of revenge for a Davis Cup upset earlier this month.Earlier yesterday, Germany's Boris Becker also quit the tournament after the death of his father. Karl-Heinz Becker, 63, died in a clinic in Heidelberg on Monday night after a long fight against cancer.Courier cruisesLAKE BUENA VISTA: Defendingchampion Jim Courier won his first match since his Davis Cup heroics with a straight sets victory over Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom at the Clay Court Championships yesterday.The fifth-seeded Courier, still riding high after his epic five-set, tie-clinching victory over Greg Rusedski in the U S Davis Cup upset of Britain earlier this month, dispatched Tillstrom 6-4, 7-5 to begin his title defence.Embattled Czech Petr Korda fell to French qualifier Rodolphe Cadart 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 to see his 1999 record drop to 5-8.Another unknown qualifier Max Mirnyi of Belarus stunned third seed Scott Draper of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 leaving just one of the top-four seeds standing after the first round.Romanian qualifier Gabriel Trifu ousted former U S collegiate champion Chris Woodruff 7-6, 6-0 but eighth seed Magnus Norman of Sweden stemmed the tide of qualifier success by crushing Olivier Malcor of France 6-3, 6-0.
