Henman: Love affair drives me on
LONDON: Tim Henman admitted yesterday that his lifelong love affair with the All England Club drove him on to clinch an epic Wimbledon first round win over Carlos Moya 6-3, 1-6, 5-7, 6-2, 13-11.
Henman, who turns 33 in September, was playing in his 14th Wimbledon and with his world ranking at a 12-year low of 74, and, had he lost, there would have been serious doubts over his desire to return to a tournament where he has been a semi-finalist four times.
But he clinched a famous 4hr 11min win, spread over two days, when Moya, the 25th seed, hit a double fault on the Briton's seventh match point.
Henman's reward is a second round tie against another Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez.
"This is a such a special place for me and when I come to Wimbledon I believe good things will happen," said Henman who had only won two matches on the tour this year coming into the tournament.
"When I was six years old, I came here and I ran around the place. It's tough to fathom that now I'm out there I'm fulfilling my dreams and this match will definitely go down as one of my favourites."
With Andy Murray ruled out through injury, Henman again is carrying the hopes of the country and that expectation translated itself into another wave of emotional support.
"The crowd reaction is different with there being no roof but the atmosphere is second to none," he said. "It's incredible and I have to try and use that to my advantage."
Britain's Tim Henman celebrates on the centre court after beating Spain's Carlos Moya at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London yesterday. Reuters |
The match had been suspended on Monday night as gloom enveloped Centre Court with the tie level at 5-5 in the final set and with Henman having failed to convert four match points in that 10th game.
Henman had looked to be down and out when he trailed two sets to one and then fell 4-2 behind in the decider to the former French Open winner.
Safin struggles
Former world No 1 Marat Safin admitted his self-belief has been blown to pieces of late after he edged past South African Rik de Voest in the first round.
The Russian number 26 seed insisted he has had no confidence in his tennis at all since making the semi-finals at Las Vegas in March.
Safin is on course to meet reigning Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the third round - but at the moment the world number 24 could not care less about clashing with the imperious Swiss.
"I have no confidence at the moment," the downbeat 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open champion told AFP.
"I'm not winning a lot of matches lately, because I've been struggling for the last couple of months; more than the last couple of months.
"The confidence comes with winning matches and playing a lot of semi-finals and finals. The last time I played a semi-final was in March, so that's where my confidence left me.
"Everything is up to the confidence. Even if you're playing bad, you win a couple of matches, then you might have a surprise and start to play well."
AFP
(China Daily 06/27/2007 page24)
