Henmann to face Mantilla

Tim Henman will today meet Spanish qualifier Felix Mantilla in the second round of the Estoril Open after comfortably passing his first-round test yesterday.

Number two seed Henman, who mutually ended his partnership with long-time coach David Felgate on Monday night, defeated Stefan Koubek 6-4 6-1.

The 26-year-old was rarely in trouble in his straight sets success in Portugal.

Henman, competing in his first clay court tournament of the season, had few troubles in maintaining his 100% record against the Austrian in his third match.

He eased through the first set and blew his opponent away in the second to raise hopes of following up February’s Copenhagen Open success with another trophy.

Henman has won both of his previous two meetings with Mantilla, emerging successful in Vienna in 1997 and at the US Open in 1998.

Elsewhere, Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero proved worthy of his number one seeding as he ousted Israel’s Harel Levy 6-3 7-6 (7-2) to book his place in the second round.

There were also wins for Slava Dosedel, who disposed of Portugal’s own wild card entrant Emanuel Couto 6-3 6-4, and number three seed Dominik Hrbaty, who beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-1 7-5.

Guillermo Coria shocked number seven seed Nicolas Lapentti 7-6 (9-7) 6-0 and Karol Kucera eliminated Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 7-6 (7-4).