Paul-Henri Mathieu returned to his personal 'House of Horrors' on Monday and the nightmare continued.

Ten months ago the Frenchman was two sets up in the fifth match of the Davis Cup final against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.

The young Mathieu was bellowing and pumping his fists, the Bercy crowd were going nuts and the biggest win of his career was at one stage only points away.

But somehow Mathieu lost, Youzhny was the hero of the hour after staging one of tennis's great comebacks and Russia won the Davis Cup for the first time.

At the prize-giving ceremony, Mathieu was in tears and the Bercy experience scarred the Frenchman deeply.

He won only one match in his first 10 tournaments this season and it was late July before he managed to string two victories together.

Along this rocky road he was forced to miss several weeks after tearing stomach muscles and his coach Thierry Champion left, hoping the shock would shake Mathieu out of his slump.

The 21-year-old began to pull himself together last month, reaching the final in Palermo, but his return to Bercy for the Paris Masters resulted in his 14th first round defeat in 2003.

BLOWING UP

Again he was well-set before blowing up at a crucial moment.

Given a wildcard, Mathieu had three set points against Hicham Arazi but still lost the first set 7-5, losing 10 points in a row.

In all he failed to take any of his six break points in a 7-5 6-4 defeat by the Moroccan, who is now coached by Champion.

"That's got nothing to do with the demons of Bercy. I am a long way from the level I want to be at," the 78th ranked Mathieu said.

Mathieu admits he feels he has aged 10 years in the past 11 months.

"I thought I had a tough skin but I realise now it wasn't thick enough," he said.

He still needs to ring up his psychologist occasionally to keep him on the right track and is in a hurry to find a new coach.

"If someone had said at the start of the year 'you are going to be (around) number 80 at the end of the year' it would have been a catastrophe.

"I've had to sort a lot of things out on my own and it was hard when I was injured but I don't think that I've done too badly.

"Perhaps in 10 years I will be able to tell myself that what I did was fantastic. But at the moment I am disappointed to have had a season like this."

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