PARIS, 25 May 2004 — Former champion Andre Agassi suffered one of the most crushing defeats of his legendary career yesterday when he crashed out of the French Open at the hands of French qualifier Jerome Haehnel, ranked a lowly 271 in the world.

Sixth seed Agassi, the oldest man in the draw at 34, lost his first round encounter 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in just over two hours on the Philippe Chatrier Court against a man playing his first ever match on tour.

However, there were no such problems for second seed, and US Open champion, Andy Roddick or third-seeded Argentinian Guillermo Coria, who both eased into the next round.

The opening day in the women’s singles progressed smoothly with defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne enjoying a 6-4, 6-4 win over France’s Sandrine Testud while third seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo also moved into the next round.

Agassi, one of only five men to have won all four Grand Slams, was playing in his 16th Roland Garros tournament having made his debut back in 1987 but he admitted that he was completely outplayed by the 23-year-old Frenchman.

Haehnel’s reward is a second round match against fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra.

Chilean Fernando Gonzalez was another seeded casualty, the No. 16 losing to highy-rated German qualifier Florian Mayer 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5).

Mayer, who reached the third round of the Hamburg Masters earlier this month, now faces France’s Nicolas Escude.

Also going out was Australian 18th seed Mark Philippoussis, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, who was beaten by Peru’s Luis Horna 6-1, 7-6 (11-9), 6-3.

Roddick, beaten here in the first round for the last two years, saw off fellow American Todd Martin 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-5 and next meets Frenchman Olivier Mutis.

Coria cruised into the next stage with 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 win over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko. He will face countryman Juan Monaco who beat Alex Bogomolov Jnr of the United States 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

The 1998 champion Carlos Moya of Spain, seeded five, defeated John van Lottum of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 while Thai 13th seed Paradorn Srichaphan saw off Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Moya now faces fellow Spaniard Fernando Vicente while Paradorn, who has never got beyond the third round, takes on veteran Spaniard Alex Corretja, twice a runner-up.

Britain’s Tim Henman, seeded nine, endured a marathon battle over 3hr 47min to defeat Cyril Saulnier of France coming from two sets down to win 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-3 and now meets Lars Burgsmuller of Germany.

Henin-Hardenne, out of action for six weeks because of a virus, shrugged off the loss of her first service game to secure victory over Testud after 87 minutes to set up a second round clash against Tathiana Garbin of Italy.

Mauresmo saw off Slovakia’s Ludmila Cervanova 6-3, 6-3 while fifth-seeded American Lindsay Davenport was too good for France’s Virginie Pichet winning 6-4, 6-2.

Ukraine’s Tatiana Perebiynis knocked out Serbia’s 24th seed Jelena Dokic 6-4, 6-1.

Russian 9th seeded Elena Dementieva also advanced after defeating Mervana Jugic-Salkic of Bosnia 7-6 (7-4) 1-6, 6-4.