The Hindu : Henman keeps British dreams alive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 27, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Henman keeps British dreams alive

By Nirmal Shekar

France's Mary Pierce makes a forehand return in her match against Greece's Eleni Daniilidou in the second round of the Wimbledon championships on Thursday. Pierce won 6-4, 6-1. — AP

London June 26. Lights. Camera. Action. An Englishman is walking into the centre court at Wimbledon to contest the final for the first time in 65 years. For the thousands that have packed the most famous tennis court _ in its sun splashed splendour _ in the world today, it is a glorious moment. Union Jacks are fluttering proudly in the stands and the crowd goes berserk, jumping for joy, awash in emotions.

The last Englishman to feature in a men's final at Wimbledon was the late Henry Austin in 1938 and this is a big occasion for a nation praying for a native Wimbledon champion for six decades and more.

Hey, wait a minute, what's happening here? Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves? Men's final on the first Thursday of the championships?

Well, before you begin to think that either you have done a Rip Van Winkle without your own knowledge or that this writer has gone off the bend, here it is: it was lights, camera, action all right on the centre court today.

And an Englishman did come out to play in the "final''. But it was all set up, so to say. It was a scene from "Wimbledon'' the movie, that was being shot on the centre court at 1 p.m., the time when play usually begins.

Perhaps it was more than a coincidence, then, that Tim Henman followed the actors on to the court to play the Frenchman Michael Llodra in the second round of the 117th championships less than 10 minutes after that shot was canned by the film's director.

The real life dream merchant of English tennis following the celluloid dream merchants...that was a perfect script. And, if the director upstairs would permit it, millions of fans here would like nothing more than the movie scene to be played out in reality _ featuring Timmy as the hero, of course _ on July 6.

Then again, no matter his comfortable 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Llodra, a left handed French qualifier, in six minutes under two hours today, Henman is a long way from realising that dream. But he is improving with each match and the draw has opened up wonderfully for the genial Englishman who has bravely shouldered the enormous weight of an entire nation's expectations here for so long.

If it was a rather stuttering start in the first round against Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic, then Henman's performance today was underlined by a quiet efficiency. He seemed relaxed, served better than on Tuesday and overall his game was a lot more aggressive than in the first round.

Llodra, a doubles specialist who is world ranked 131, was not the sort of opponent that might have been expected to pose too many problems for the 10th seed. But in the light of what happened to Lleyton Hewitt, the top players are rather wary of qualifiers.

As always, Henman is the only one left to keep the home nation's flag flying and he promises yet again to stay on until the business end of the championships to try and see if he can work up a real life preview of Wimbledon the movie.

If not for the sake of his fanatical supporters, then at least for the sake of tennis, Henman's survival is crucial. He is one of the few classic serve and volleyers left in the game and there is no greater pleasure then watching this dying breed on grass.

Today, Henman mixed things up very well, hitting some superb lobs, passing with tremendous confidence and skills, and, most of all, showing a greater inclination to serve and volley on his second serve.

Llodra, who has had tremendous success with Fabrice Santoro in doubles, has very good hands. As a doubles specialist, he has superb mastery of the court angles and the crosscourt backhand he hits _ rather coaxes _ with a flick of the wrist is a thing of beauty.

But, playing in only his second singles match in the main draw this year, it was obvious that Llodra lacked big match experience. He was far too inconsistent, the brilliant and the banal going hand in hand.

After some entertaining tennis early in the first set, when both players staved off breakpoints to hold, Henman broke through for the set in the 10th game with a forehand crosscourt pass.

In the second, the players traded early breaks before Henman once again wrapped up the set in the 10th game on the Frenchman's serve with a backhand return winner. The pattern was similar in the third although this time the crucial break for Henman came in the sixth game.

The forgotten man

Meanwhile, here is the trivia question of the day: Who was the losing men's finalist in Wimbledon last year? Got it right? Tough to recall? Well, remember a non-descript fella of Armenian origin from a small mountain town called Unquillo in Argentina? The bloke with a shuffling gait who had his moments in the sun _ and rain _ last year before Lleyton Hewitt showed him his place?

Ah, David Nalbandian!

Well, David the Goliath is very much around, alive and kicking, in this championship. Offered a big stage for the first time this week, Nalbandian, who has had a bus stop and a hot dog stand named after him in his hometown since making the 2002 Wimbledon final, stormed into the third round with an easy 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Andre Sa of Brazil.

Sa suggested that he had it in him to make a match of it briefly in the second set but Nalbandian stepped on the pedal at the right moments to stay in command. With quite a few games going against serve, the pattern of the match resembled what you normally get to see in women's tennis.

On a football field, this would have been a classic: Argentina vs Brazil. But there are not too many tennis players from the land of Pele, or even from the land of Maradona, who are comfortable on the green, green grass of Wimbledon.

Nalbandian, of course, created history last year but, so far this year, he has been the forgotten man with the lights clearly on such luminaries as Henman and Agassi and Roddick. Then again, some players are never in the spotlight, no matter what they do. And the ones like Nalbandian plough on manfully in the shadowland of Grand Slam tennis.

Who knows? Maybe we'll all be surprised yet again come July 6. And if the genial Argentine does repeat, perhaps this time they'll name his entire hometown after him!

Life, and sport, are full of surprises.

Talking of surprises, it wasn't really a huge shock as the former French and Australian Open champion Mary Pierce, now world ranked 83, cut down Eleni Daniilidou, the 14th seed, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round.

Pierce does have the pedigree but her career has been plagued by injuries in recent times. It was close until 5-4 in the first set, at which point Pierce hit some blistering winners to break the Greek girl and from there she was on cruise mode.

Also through the third round with a thoroughly commanding serving performance was Jennifer Capriati who beat Marie Gaianeh Mikaelian 6-2, 6-1.

The results: Men: singles: second round: 6-David Nalbandian (Arg) bt Andre Sa (Bra) 6-2, 7-5, 6-2; 30-Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Stefano Galvani (Ita) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (3); Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Gilles Elseneer (Bel) 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4, 6-3.

Flavio Saretta (Bra) bt 23-Agustin Calleri (Arg) 6-4, 6-7(13), 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-8; Victor Hanescu (Rom) bt 32-Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4; 5-Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Greg Rusedski (GBR) 7-6(4), 7-6(1), 7-5; 25-Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Brian Vahaly (U.S.) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2; Max Mirnyi (Bel) bt Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) bt Jurgen Melzer (Aus) 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

First round: 13-Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) bt Thomas Enqvist (Swe) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4).

Women: singles: second round: 8-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) bt Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian (Sui) 6-2, 6-1; 15-Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt Arantxa Parra (Esp) 6-1, 6-1; 23-Lisa Raymond (U.S) bt Marlene Weingartner (Ger) 6-3, 6-0; Emilie Loit (Fra) bt Maria Elena Camerin (Ita) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; 10-Anastasia Myskina (Rus) bt Lina Krasnoroutskaya (Rus) 6-1, 6-4; Mary Pierce (Fra) bt 14-Eleni Daniilidou (Gre) 6-4, 6-1.

Shinobu Asagoe (Jpn) bt 9-Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) 0-6, 6-4, 12-10; 5-Lindsay Davenport (U.S.) bt Rita Grande (Ita) 6-3, 6-1.

2-Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt Virginie Razzano (Fra) 6-1, 6-3; Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt 17-Amanda Coetzer (RSA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4; 29-Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Angelique Widjaja (Indo) 7-6(3), 6-3; Samantha Reeves (U.S.) bt Fabiola Zuluaga (Col) 7-6 (6), 6-4.

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