7.35am
LONDON - A clearly relieved Tim Henman drew on his surprising run to the semi-finals of the French Open to keep his Wimbledon dreams alive on Tuesday.
Henman's Wimbledon title hopes appeared to be under threat on Tuesday when he found himself a set and a break down to Spain's Ruben
Ramirez-Hidalgo in the first round.
But the British fifth seed feels his new mental resolve, honed under the coaching of Paul Annacone, helped him get out of a hole.
"I definitely got frustrated at times on court and in all honesty, I spent too much time concentrating on the negatives rather then being optimistic and positive," Henman said following his 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-2 victory.
"Upon reflection, I didn't play well today but Paris is a good example of how I was struggling ... I was in an even worse position there than I was today and I found a way to win."
The 29-year-old came back from two sets down in the first round of the claycourt event last month.
"You can't always expect to play your best," he said. "That's a physical, technical and mental thing and today wasn't my best performance mentally. I got frustrated with some of my execution so the important thing is I found a way to get through.
"Those are the matches you can draw confidence from. The way I've played over the last six or seven months gives me confidence even if I'm not playing well."
Henman will be back on court on Thursday to face Swiss qualifier Ivo Heuberger and is hoping for another early start so he can follow England's fortunes in their Euro 2004 quarter-finals against Portugal later in the day.
"I'd love to be able to watch the football but my job is my priority right now," said the British number one. "I'm going to be ready and focused for that and if I can watch the football as well, that will be a bonus."
Men's singles first round matches on Tuesday (prefix denotes seeding):
Albert Montanes (Spain) beat Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-2 6-3
32-Hicham Arazi (Morocco) beat Andre Sa (Brazil) 6-1 6-4 6-2
9-Carlos Moya (Spain) beat Olivier Patience (France) 6-4 3-6 7-5 6-7 (6-8) 6-1
5-Tim Henman (Britain) beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (Spain) 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-2
* Martin Verkerk (Netherlands) beat Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-5
Xavier Malisse (Belgium) beat 16-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4 6-4
Ivo Heuberger (Switzerland) beat Flavio Saretta (Brazil) 5-7 6-0 6-1 7-6 (11-9)
Alexander Peya (Austria) beat Jeff Salzenstein (US) 6-2 6-4 6-2
Irakli Labadze (Georgia) beat Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) 6-2 6-4 3-6 6-2
11-Mark Philippoussis (Australia) beat Christophe Rochus (Belgium) 6-3 6-4 6-2
Wayne Ferreira (South Africa) beat 28-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 6-2
Cyril Saulnier (France) beat Michael Llodra (France) 7-5 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-3)
Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) beat 19-Marat Safin (Russia) 4-6 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-1)
Jan-Michael Gambill (US) beat 23-Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-3 7-5 6-4
Lu Yen-Hsun (Taiwan) beat Jan Vacek (Czech Republic) 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2
Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) beat Marc Lopez (Spain) 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-2
Joachim Johansson (Sweden) beat Arnaud Clement (France) 6-2 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (9-7)
Florian Mayer (Germany) beat Wayne Arthurs (Australia) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4)
14-Mardy Fish (US) beat Ivan Navarro Pastor (Spain) 6-3 6-2 6-3
Karol Kucera (Slovakia) beat Oscar Hernandez (Spain) 6-1 6-2 6-2
- REUTERS
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7.35am
LONDON - A clearly relieved Tim Henman drew on his surprising run to the semi-finals of the French Open to keep his Wimbledon dreams alive on Tuesday.
Henman's Wimbledon title hopes appeared to be under threat on Tuesday when he found himself a set and a break down to Spain's Ruben
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