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Tiger Tim de-clawed
By Andrew Lilley
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Hope, potential, the odd flash of grit and determination coupled with a
few lovely forehands, but ultimately all to no avail… Tim Henman, the last
remaining Brit, fell in four sets to his Grand Slam nemesis Dmitry Tursunov
in a two-day, four-set epic 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4. Bring on the grass courts and
'Henman Hill'!
The first two sets were played on a chilly Wednesday night, as evening
was falling after a day of rain delays more akin to Wimbledon than its French
predecessor. Despite the British weather, however, Tim was off his game right
from the start, surrendering his opening service game and losing the first
set 6-3.
He needed to hit the ground running in the second, but was again broken
on his first service game, leading to a fiery outburst which prompted a
warning from the umpire. This did, at least, seem to focus Tiger Tim's mind,
and he finally broke back - after squandering six break points - to level at
2-2. That, however, was as good as it got for the Brit on Wednesday evening,
with Tursunov breaking him in both of his next two service games via a
combination of deep ground strokes and powerful forehands to take the second
set 6-2. Bad light then stopped play, and Henman was given a stay of execution.
The players re-emerged on a sunnier, yet still rather brisk, Thursday
lunchtime, with Henman clearly determined to take the game to his opponent.
After holding serve, the Brit hurtled to the net on the first point on
Tursunov's serve, only to find himself gunned down by a bullet of a forehand.
Three Russian aces later, and the tone had been set, or so we thought.
All the No.31 seed had to do was to sit back and wait for Henman to net a
forehand or over-hit a backhand, and a combination of those two errors,
followed by a lucky let cord, did for Henman in the fifth game.
Down but not out, Henman broke straight back, twice held serve and began
charging to the net on the Tursunov service in game 10. The Russian faltered,
and Tiger Tim was back in the match, taking the third set 6-4.
With the crowd well and truly behind him in the fourth, Tim led 3-2 and
had a total of eight break points in the sixth game, none of which he managed
to convert. He would come to rue this lack of killer instinct, which saw him
net an easy smash on 30-40 that would have given him a 4-2 lead. Tursunov
turned the tables on him in the next game, requiring only two bites of the
cherry to break the Henman serve for a 4-3 lead.
At 5-4, the Brit had one final flurry but failed to capitalise on a
break point, and after two hours and 51 minutes, the No.31 seed was through,
6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4. Tursunov has now beaten Henman in all of their three
encounters - including the Australian Open this January, and last year's
Wimbledon.
Tursunov goes from strength to strength, therefore. After falling in
the first round in 2004 and the second last year, the stocky Russian is now
into the last 32. At this pace, you could do worse than wager a few euros on
him to win the tournament in 2011… He is also showing himself to be more
adept on clay, but whether he can trouble David Nalbandian in a few days time
is another matter. For Henman, however, and the owner of the Union Jack
draped over the front row on Court No2, the grass season has already begun…
After the match, Henman was surprisingly upbeat. "There's a large part of
me that really is very, very confident about the way that I've been playing,
the way that I'm moving on the court," he said.
"My movement, my strength and my enjoyment is probably as good as it's
been in the last three or four years, and that's a big motivating factor.
Sure, I'd like the results to improve, but I just don't really have any
doubts that they will improve because I'm playing good tennis.
"It didn't go my way today, and in those conditions against that type of
player, it's difficult. I nearly was able to pull it off, but I do feel very
, very optimistic about things."
Court 2 - Men's Singles - 2nd Round 1 2 3 4 5
Tim Henman GBR 3 2 6 4
vs.
Dmitry Tursunov RUS (31) 6 6 4 6
Tursunov converted 6 of 14 break points, while Henman managed 3 of 21.
Tursunov sent down 10 aces but also served up 9 double faults.
Other than in 2004, where he made the semis, Henman has never gone beyond
the first week of Roland Garros since his debut here in 1996.
Tursunov went to deuce 23 times on his own service.
The two players managed a first service percentage of 60% between them.
--
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