The Hindu : Sport : Tim Henman goes down without a fight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 23, 2005

Sport

Sport

Tim Henman goes down without a fight

By Nirmal Shekar

MELBOURNE, JAN. 22. Like Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark, Tim Henman has always been in a dilemma. What should he be?

And, after a dozen years of watching the laid-back Englishman on the big stage, so are we. What is he, then? A sheep in wolf's clothing or a wolf in sheep's clothing?

All the agonising drama that Henman puts us through offers little by way of enlightenment on the subject, although Saturday's shockingly casual capitulation against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the third round of the Centenary Australian Open might suggest that, like the English soldiers in Shakespeare's Henry V, Henman had all along "disguised fair nature with hard-favoured rage,'' with sporadic success.

Obstreperous one day and subdued the next, Henman has rarely seemed to perform in his psychological comfort zone as an athlete unless he happens to be playing a lob away from Henman Hill in London, SW 19.

Today, against a player to whom he had not conceded a set in two previous matches, the seventh seeded Englishman saw his game veer off course, wobble and collapse in a heap of errors as Davydenko eased into the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory in two hours and six minutes.

"I definitely didn't play my best today,'' said Henman who has never gone past the fourth round in Melbourne and has only twice made it past the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam other than Wimbledon. Both those achievements came last year when he figured in the semifinal line-up at the French and U.S. Open championships.

Henman's career-best Grand Slam run in 2004 saw him finish the year No.6 — his fifth Top Ten finish in seven years — but from today's evidence there is, obviously, a lot of off-season rustiness to be worked on in his game.

From the moment he lost the first game of the match, on serve, Henman was up against the wall. Davydenko, born in Ukraine, brought up in Germany and now a Russian citizen, did play with tremendous confidence and skills from the back of the court, returning serves superbly and passing the net-rushing Henman almost at will but this was a match that Henman lost.

And this was a day, too, when Mr. Henman, OBE, winner of over $10m in prize money, did not have a Plan B. Or perhaps he did have it but failed to execute it.

"I am not going to deny this was definitely a bad day at the office. When you come into these type of tournaments and you are in the last 32, it's going to be highlighted if you are a bit short,'' said Henman.

Under-statement

"Bit short", of course, was a typical British under-statement. It was as if Henman had left his game behind at the hotel safe deposit locker before getting into the courtesy car this morning. For, even when he was presented chances to get back into the match, the Englishman failed to come alive.

Henman's best chance to yank the door open came early in the second set. But Davydenko did not have to turn himself into Superman to fight off a few breakpoints in the second game although the Russian played well above himself for the most part of the match to make the fourth round of a Grand Slam championship for the first time.

"They were missed opportunities,'' said Henman. "I would like to look at those points and ask myself how I played them. I was never able to create an opportunity to get forward.''

With 32 unforced errors and just 21 winners (including service), the Englishman took home a poor report card but, as in the past, bore his distress with patented fortitude. Stiff upper lip, Old Boy! Of course, Henman needs no reminders.

"It is something I have probably built up over the years. I am not the type of person that likes to give too much away,'' said Henman, quite proud of being an unemotional Englishman, true to type. "I suppose I get better and better at just, you know, shielding my sort of feelings.''

Yet, as you watch Henman go through the motions stoically, on a day like this, you cannot but wonder if this was his own sort of quiet rebellion against the Tiger Tim image created for him by the British media. And rebellion is in his genes. His great grandmother, Ellen Brown, was the first lady to serve over-arm at Wimbledon, in 1901. That is the equivalent of a player dropping his pants on the centre court today!

A lot different

Andy Roddick shares as many personality traits with Tim Henman as the Englishman himself might with Eminem. Let's just say they are different. Today, as it turned out, the difference had a lot to do, too, with the kind of day the two men had at the office.

As Henman's game fell apart in the Vodofone Arena, Roddick was right on top of his own at the Rod Laver Arena, racing past Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.

It was elementary slam-bang stuff, not the sort of music Melzer might have been used to in the opera houses in Vienna.

Roddick spent a little over an hour and half on court, hit 22 aces, 11 forehand winners — even three volley winners, a sure sign of his elevated confidence level — and had a lot more trouble answering tricky questions at the post-match press conference than he ever did on court.

"Could you comment about men's tennis fashion today?"

"Do you plan to wear pants?"

Tennis, anybody?

Prefix denotes seeding

Men: Third round: 12-Guillermo Canas (Arg) bt Radek Stepanek (Czech) 6-1, 6-2, 6-2; 6-Guillermo Coria (Arg) bt 31-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Esp) 6-3, 6-2, 6-1; 26-Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) bt 7-Tim Henman (GBR) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2; Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) bt Jean-Rene Lisnard (Fra) 7-5, 6-3, 6-2; 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt 32-Jurgen Melzer (Aut) 6-2, 6-2, 7-5; 9-David Nalbandian (Arg) bt 23-Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3; Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Bobby Reynolds (U.S.) 6-1, 6-1, 6-3; 3-Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt 25-Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Women: Third round: 3-Anastasia Myskina (Rus) bt 25-Lisa Raymond (U.S.) walkover; 13-Karolina Sprem (Cro) bt 18-Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) 6-4, 6-3; 1-Lindsay Davenport (U.S.) bt Nicole Vaidisova (Czech) 6-2, 6-4; 8-Venus Williams (U.S.) bt 27-Anna Smashnova (Isr) 6-3, 6-0; 10-Alicia Molik (Aus) bt Tatiana Panova (Rus) 6-3, 6-2; 19-Nathalie Dechy (Fra) bt 14-Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-3, 6-3; 12-Patty Schnyder (Sui) bt Abigail Spears (U.S.) 7-6(4), 6-3; 6-Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt 26-Daniela Hantuchova (Slo) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

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