Australian Open: Rusedski out of Australian Open

Greg Rusedski made it an unwelcome double for Britain when emulating Tim Henman by crashing out of the Australian Open in straight sets at the fourth round stage.

He was a set down after 32 minutes of his fourth-round clash with 15th seed Arnaud Clement at the Australian Open.

A disputed line call gave the Frenchman a break point in the fourth game and he took it with a superb top-spin passing shot.

Rusedski saved two set points at 2-5, but in the next game missed the chance to break back and Clement took the set when Rusedski couldn't return a fine second serve.

The second set was even easier for Clement, who has yet to lose a set in the championship.

He raced into a 4-0 lead, the second break coming on a Rusedski double-fault, and Clement, seeded for the first time in a Grand Slam after reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open last year, took it 6-2.

So far, it was proving as simple as his first-round victory over Rusedski at the Olympics in September.

He had another win over the Briton after that, although Rusedski had won the first three meetings between the two.

A chink of light appeared when Rusedski broke for a 3-1 lead in the third set. However, Clement broke back immediately and then held serve from love-40 down in the eighth game.

That proved decisive when Rusedski double-faulted to lose his serve again at five-all and Clement had no difficulty serving out for a 6-3 6-2 7-5 victory in one hour 52 minutes.