Rusedski and Henman maintain gold standard on excuses

It was a case of close your eyes, think of Melbourne, and then think of something worse. Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski have never done well in the Australian Open, so expectations of a successful games were never high. But after their two extremely indifferent performances, the British Olympic Association must wonder whether it was really worth having the two players in Sydney at all.

Rusedski and Henman clearly enjoyed their time in the Olympic village. But when it came to the sharp end, namely competing, they failed woefully, losing tamely in the first round.

But they were not alone. Marat Safin, the new US Open champion, and the winner of a tournament in Tashkent last weekend, finally succumbed to exhaustion and lost to France's Fabrice Santoro. Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, the No4 seed, went out to Max Mirnyi of Belarus, with whom he won the men's doubles title at Flushing Meadows. This made Henman's defeat all the more galling as he was in Safin's and Hewitt's half of the draw.

The best excuse for Henman's error-strewn display, which encapsulated all his weaknesses, was that he could not have recovered from the mental trauma of his five-set defeat by the Dutchman Richard Krajicek in the third round of the US Open. Slovakia's Karol Kucera, who won 6-3, 6-2 in less than 90 minutes, played fine tennis on occasions but Henman failed to secure early break points and collapsed thereafter.

Rusedski, who has played half as many matches as Henman this year, largely because of injuries, lasted a mere 49 minutes against France's Arnaud Clément, losing 6-2, 6-3. He, too, gave the impression that he was here for the games experience as much as anything.

These two British performances (effort would be a misnomer), coupled with the feeble Davis Cup defeat against Ecuador in July, which continues to cause much mirth on the professional circuit, has left British tennis at its lowest ebb since the days when Jeremy Bates was No1, just before Rusedski's arrival and the parallel rise of Henman.

Rusedski's attack this week on the LTA and its chief executive John Crowther, which he later apologised for, was not without justification but was remarkably badly timed. These two defeats, and especially the nature of them, has done tennis no favours whatsoever in Britain.

Rusedski admitted to being "stupid" over his criticism of the LTA, adding "we are all allowed to make one mistake". But he embarrassed Roger Taylor, the Olympic team captain, and the BOA. "I will go back home and talk to John and Roger. I want to do something productive," he said.

Both Henman, who has not won a tournament for two years, and Rusedski have become all too adept at making excuses. On this occasion Rusedski claimed "Clement was on fire" while Henman insisted this was "the best Karol has played against me". In truth neither Briton appeared unduly perturbed at their first-round defeats, which made the combined exit all the more disappointing.

A couple of days earlier Henman had said the Olympics were the pinnacle of any sportsperson's life, which is what the International Tennis Federation would like all their leading players truly to believe. "We want them to regard the Olympic tournament as the fifth grand slam every four years," said Britain's Debbie Jevans, the ITF's secretary-general and Olympic tennis executive director.

Without doubt, the placing of the tennis site within the main Olympic complex, as it was in Seoul 12 years ago when tennis returned as an official sport after an absence of 64 years, has greatly enhanced its status and accessibility in Sydney.

Tennis has now been granted Olympic B status, second only to athletics, which means the money the ITF receives from the IOC rises from $5m (£3.5m) to $8m over the next four years. "We have made tremendous strides, with a steady upward curve since Seoul," said Jevans, while admitting the battle for acceptance will only be really won when people stop asking her "Should tennis be in the Olympics?"

Problems already loom before the next games in Athens. The Olympic tournament is due to finish the week before qualification for the US Open, presenting a big difficulty.

"The Olympics are special, and I think the US Open should be prepared to change its dates accordingly," said Rusedski.