Paris, May 27: Former world number one Marcelo Rios of Chile, whose career has been hugely disrupted by injury, saw his jinx strike again at the French Open as he withdrew from his first round match against Croatia's Mario Ancic with an arm injury. Rios was losing 1-6 0-1 yesterday when he threw in the towel and handed ancic a plum second-round draw against former champion and second seed Andre Agassi.

The 27-year-old Rios, who was briefly top of the rankings in March 1998, cursed his luck but admitted his left serving arm had been hurting since his weekend participation with Chile in the world team cup, a victory achieved largely through singles and doubles wins by Fernando Gonzalez.

"My arm hurts when I am serving - it's a little contraction. I hope it's nothing much," said Rios, twice a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros but who is perhaps known as much for consistently winning the 'lemon prize' at the event as for his on-court exploits. Bureau Report