Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: Henman Squeezes Through

/noticias.info/ Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Tim Henman flirted with first round disaster before mounting a thrilling recovery to defeat the Finnish left-hander Jarkko Nieminen 3-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in three and a half hours on Centre Court.

The sixth-seeded Henman had not suffered a first round defeat at The Championships since the first of his 12 years of competition, as a wild card back in 1994. But today he came close to paying a crushing price for some untypically weak and indifferent tennis in the first two sets against an opponent who, though ranked 70 in the world, was brave and hungry to pull off a sensation.

The scale of what would have been a cataclysmic defeat for Henman, the hope of the British nation, could be measured from the fact that this was Nieminen's first match on grass since his third round defeat here two years ago. The Finn missed last summer's Wimbledon because of a wrist fracture.

Nieminen, who is at The Championships on honeymoon, having married last week, could have been celebrating the finest win of his career. For much of this match he would have deserved it. Looking thoroughly at home on the Centre Court grass, calm and confident, he took the fight to a strangely lethargic Henman.

Nieminen broke in the seventh game of the opening set and wrapped it up in 32 minutes with another break, on both occasions walloping a forehand past the incoming Henman.

Despite taking a 2-0 lead in the second set, Henman was overhauled, again causing murmurs of alarm among his loyal supporters by his laboured footwork and lethargic movement. He led 4-2 when the set came to a tie-break, only for Nieminen to sweep the next five points. At this stage of the match Henman had committed 30 unforced errors.

At last turning his mind to a sensible plan of attack, Henman needed to save a break point at the start of the third set before mounting his recovery. It was an enthralling set, too. Both men held serve in turn until, at 5-4 in his favour, Henman missed two set points before capturing it at the third opportunity with a glorious cross-court forehand that was just out of the diving Finn's reach.

Henman's peril was still acute, and it did not ease until Nieminen cracked crucially on serve in the 12th game of the fourth set for the Briton to level the match. Now, finally, the force was with the Briton, much to the joy of the thousands of ticketless fans on "Henman Hill" outside Centre Court. When he ran away with the first three games of the final set, there could only be one victor. But Henman was a decidedly relieved winner.

He meets the US-based Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the second round on Thursday.


Written by Ronald Atkin notas_de_prensa_archivo