Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered a dispiritng defeat in his first match of 2005 as he lost to Jan Hernych at the Heineken Open in Auckland on Tuesday. The Spaniard, who has not won two consecutive Tour matches since Wimbledon, went down 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 6-1 to the Czech.
Poor form and fitness saw Ferrero slump from third in the world to 32 in 2004.
Top seed Guillermo Coria was in impressive form, easing past Sjeng Schalken 6-0 6-3.
Second seed Tommy Robredo of Spain was another early casualty, going down 4-6 6-4 6-4 to Raemon Sluiter of the Netherlands.
And on a poor day for Spain, teenage star Rafael Nadal was forced to retire with chest pains after losing the first set 6-3 against third seed Dominik Hrbaty.
"It wasn't an easy decision but I was feeling a lot of pain and so I preferred to stop," said Nadal.
MMIX
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