29/06/2004

Henman admits 'tension' during win over Philippoussis

The eighth day of play at Wimbledon saw the fans on 'Henman Hill' delighted by the robust play of the number five seed in some tense exchanges on Centre Court.

Tim Henman made a reasonably secure start in a match that proved to be finely poised and could have swung in favour of either player. As Henman said in the post match interview, "there were a lot of important points out there".

Henman won the first set 6-2, but Philippoussis did not make it quite so easy in the second set forcing Henman to win a seventh game to close out the second set 7-5.

The tension increased steadily after the second set. Mark Philippoussis lost his cool at times volubly disputing lines calls and was cautioned for audible obscenities. But the Australian did not let the calls affect his play and continued to put up a sterling performance to take the third set 7-6 in the tie-break.

In the fourth Philippoussis came close to winning the set, but Henman, who had set great store throughout the match in his consistent service game, won through in the fourth set tie-break 7-5 to take the set 7-6 and narrowly avoid a fifth set decider.

Henman takes on the unseeded Croatian 20-year-old Mario Ancic in the quarter-finals. Ancic's best Wimbledon performance in his two senior appearances was in 2002 when he went out in the second round.

(SP)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

26 June 2007
Henman sees off Moya
Tim Henman has seen off a determined Carlos Moya seeded 25 in a marathon nail-biting first round match at Wimbledon. The first set was suspended due to rain at 3-5 with Moya fighting his way back into the first set after a comfortable looking start for a confident looking Tim Henman. Play did not resume again until 6.
25 June 2004
On form Henman dismisses Heuberger
A slow start, but then a good performance from Tim Henman today saw the British number one player overwhelm Ivo Heuberger in straight sets in his second round match. But the typically uneven start by the top British player had the Centre Court crowd on the edge of their seats in the first set.
26 June 2003
Assured Henman through to Wimbledon third round
British tennis number one Tim Henman swept to a straight sets victory over Frenchman Michael Llodra to go on to the third round of Wimbledon, on Thursday. The sole Briton left in this year's Wimbledon singles draw, Henman won 6-4 6-4 6-3 to take on Robin Soderling in the next round.
29 June 2006
Henman crashes out to defending champion Federer
Tim Henman appeared to start out in reasonable form against Roger Federer in the second- round Wimbledon clash, losing the first set, but with two chances to break the Swiss serve. However, the Henman game was no match for the relentless play from the defending Wimbledon champion who has an enviable unbeaten run.
30 June 2004
Tiger Tim 'disappointed' at Wimbledon loss
Tim Henman will have to wait another year to realise his dreams of Wimbledon glory after he was unceremoniously dumped out of today's quarter-finals by unseeded Croat Mario Ancic. Henman said afterwards that his 7-6 6-4 6-2 straight sets defeat was a "massive disappointment".