Murray meets Henman, Hewitt withdraws

Britons Andy Murray and Tim Henman will face each other for the third time in seven weeks in the first round of this week's $550,000 ATP Thailand Open, while Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has withdrawn due to injury.

Henman will be hoping to make it third time lucky in Bangkok today when he takes on the fourth-seeded Scotsman, who knocked him out of both the Cincinnati and Toronto Masters events early last month.

Henman said he was relishing the early test against the in-form teenager, but conceded he would have to improve his game to progress to the next round.

"I was happy with the draw when I found out I was facing Andy," the Thai-language Siam Sport daily quoted Henman as saying.

"Every time we've met he's been in great form but if I want to progress I have to play a better game than I've been playing so far."

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has withdrawn from the competition and said he will take several weeks off to recover from a knee injury.

Second-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, in the hunt for his second career ATP tour title after winning the China Open earlier this month, takes on France's Julien Benneteau, while top seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia faces Spain's Fernando Vincente.

Corretja announces his retirement

Former world number two and French Open finalist Alex Corretja of Spain announced his retirement from the professional circuit last weekend. "It was a very difficult decision as it isn't easy to leave tennis," Corretja told Spanish state television.

The 32-year-old turned professional in 1990 and reached his highest world ranking of number two in February 1999, after winning the season ending Masters Cup the previous year. He made the final at Roland Garros in 1998 and 2001 and helped Spain win their first Davis Cup title in 2000.

Corretja had not played an ATP event since April 2005.