Henman holds nerve to clinch victory

TIM HENMAN revealed how he again played through the pain of a shoulder injury to reach the third round of the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

The fifth seed eventually eased through to a meeting with Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela after a 6-3 6-4 7-5 victory over big-serving Belgian Dick Norman.

But he said of his injury: ‘‘It’s sort of more fatigued, I think. As the match progresses, it just sort of feels like it stiffens up and gets pretty tight in and around my shoulder.

‘‘I’m not going to do any drastic damage. But it’s certainly, you know, it’s not something you want to keep playing with on and on. That is when you might start having problems.’’

After a match interrupted by rain, Henman added: ‘‘There was a lot of uncertainty at the beginning. It’s difficult to get any sort of rhythm when you’re going on and off the whole time. It’s tough to get rhythm against a player of his style.

‘‘I think the first set was always going to be pretty important, so I was obviously pleased with the return game I played at 4-3. After I got the first set under my belt, I felt pretty comfortable out there.’’

Henman did suffer from one of his characteristic lapses towards the end of the match, however, when - already a break up - he dropped his serve at 4-3.

But the British number one managed to regain his composure to break back and claim a 6-5 lead before serving out the match to line up a clash with 26th seed Chela.

The match got off to a stuttering start with the players forced to leave the court on two occasions in the first set due to rain. When the weather relented, Henman soon showed his intent by breaking Norman to take a 5-3 lead. He held his own delivery to claim the opening set in 32 minutes.

Henman broke again in the first game of the second set as he threatened to run away with the match. But Norman showed his determination by hitting back immediately to end a four-game losing streak.

The Belgian visibly grew in confidence with a number of cute drop shots as Henman struggled to recapture the momentum he had towards the end of the first set.

Both players held serve until 4-4 when Henman moved up a gear to grab a crucial break at the perfect time.

After taking a 0-40 lead on the Norman serve, the 31-year-old from Waregem pulled it back to 30-40 before a clever chipped return from the Briton forced his opponent into a half-volley which he put into the net.

Henman, who thrashed Finland’s Tuomas Ketola 6-1 6-1 6-1 in his opening encounter, held his nerve to serve it out and take a commanding lead in the match.

The Oxfordshire-born 27-year-old, whose best performance in New York was reaching the fourth round in 1996 and 1998, claimed an early lead in the third set and held it until his late jitters.

He now faces Chela, who reached the final at Long Island last week.

‘‘It’s definitely going to be a step up,’’ admitted Henman. ‘‘You know, he’s a quality opponent and he’s playing very well on hard courts this year. I think he made the final last week. I practised with him a little bit in Cincinnati and he was playing really, really well.

‘‘But again, I think my game does match up with well against him. It is going to put my serve and my shoulder under quite a lot of scrutiny, if that is the right word.’’