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Illness forces Paes out of Italian Open

Leander Paes will not be seen in action at the Italian Open tennis championships at the Foro Italico in Rome this week. The Indian champion dropped out of the prestigious Super Nine event preceeding the French Open, citing viral fever as the reason. It is believed that Paes was still to recover from the upper respiratory infection he contacted prior to the German Open in Hamburg last week.

''Leander informed Mahesh of his inability to play in the tournament on Sunday," said Krishna Bhupathi, father of Mahesh. ''He also informed him (Mahesh) that he could team up with another player for the doubles," he said. Paes and Bhupathi were to defend the title they won last year.

Thus, Bhupathi paired teamed with British star Tim Henman for the doubles. However, the partnership did not last long as the pair was beaten by the South African pair of David Adams and John-Laffnie De Jager 3-6, 6-7.

On Monday, Henman slipped a place in the rankings. His fall from seventh to eighth spot came despite his best-ever performance on clay last week, when he reached the quarter-finals of the German Open in Hamburg.

In singles play, world No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov ended a run of six consecutive first round defeats by beating Chris Woodruff; Andre Agassi cruised to a classy victory over Frenchman Jerome Golmard and Spain's Alex Corretja defeated Italy's wildcard entrant Diego Nargiso. Switzerland's Marc Rosset, the 1992 Olympic champion, retired with hip trouble from his game with Frenchman Arnaud Clement.