Britain's Tim Henman was denied a place in the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters on Thursday after losing to Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta at the Foro Italico.

Henman, the number four seed, joined the top three seeds on the tournament scrap heap despite taking the first set of his rain-delayed third round match with relative ease.

Zabaleta, who knocked out last year's champion Felix Mantilla in the previous round, battled back after his early setback to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 40 minutes.

Henman's error count of 30 to Zabaleta's six told its own story.

Zabaleta, 26, will play either Chilean eighth seed Nicolas Massu or Russian Marat Safin, winner of the 2000 US Open, in the last eight.

Henman, who reached the quarter-finals at Monte Carlo last month, was disappointed to let slip a match that was there for the taking.

"In the first set my tennis was as good as it has ever been on clay," said the 29-year-old, making his eighth consecutive appearance in the Italian capital.

"But he certainly raised his level in the second set. He was so consistent, so aggressive and was hitting a lot of his first serves, setting himself up and dictating with his forehand. It was difficult for me to make an impact."

Henman was not the only fancied player to end up red-faced with four seeds tumbling out earlier in the day after losing their rain-delayed second round matches.

Lleyton Hewitt, Sebastien Grosjean, Paradorn Srichaphan and Sjeng Schalken all perished, but former French Open champion Carlos Moya survived the cull with a comfortable straight sets victory over Ivan Ljubicic.

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