Make or break time for Henman
It's 67 years since a Briton held the men's singles trophy at Wimbledon and it feels like even longer to home fans caught lingering over the faded black and white pictures of a long-trousered Fred Perry landing his third consecutive title.
The game of today is light years removed from the one that Perry played he would have been equally astonished by racquets producing serves at around 230kph as by prizemoney for the men's champion equivalent to some 20 years worth of an average salary in a mainstream occupation.
For Henman, however, the pressure is not financial. It emanates from the knowledge that year after year the hopes of a nation rest on his shoulders and his alone.
After blasting Swedish qualifier Robin Soderling in straight sets on Saturday Henman says he is ready for his fourth round duel with last year's finalist David Nalbandian of Argentina, who edged Slovakia's Karol Kucera in five sets in his third round encounter.
He was a little less happy to learn that McEnroe was again backing him in the knowledge that he has fallen four times in the past five years at the semi-final stage, including 12 months ago to eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt.
"He's said that the last four years hasn't he?" the British tenth seed said on hearing of McEnroe's support. Yet Henman is aware that with Hewitt having flopped in the opening round and with Andre Agassi the only other former champion left standing this is the time to seize his chance.
Having entered the season late following arthroscopic shoulder surgery in November, Henman is thankful to have emerged from the opening three matches unscathed.
"There was perhaps a little more uncertainty than in previous years for obvious reasons. But at this stage I couldn't be happier with the way I've played. I've served very consistently and aggressively," he said.
Henman is conscious of not having beaten the deceptively tenacious Nalbandian in two previous meetings, however.
"He looks so fresh out there. I've lost to him twice in two really tight matches. He's a Wimbledon finalist. I think that says enough about him.
"He's very comfortable on these courts. I've got to find a way to beat him. I know his game well enough but I've never played him on grass," said Henman
If Henman wins he would face either French 13th seed Sebastien Grosjean who beat him at Queens' immediately prior to Wimbledon or French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, the Spanish third seed finally beginning to look comfortable on grass.
After that it would come down to semi-final D-day for the fifth time for the Briton as Agassi would then likely lie in wait assuming the Las Vegan outlasts rejuvenated Australian Mark Philippoussis. To date, Agassi leads Henman 2-1 in but none was on grass.
Agassi should progress easily enough to the last eight if he gets past Philippoussis as he would then face Belgium's Olivier Rochus or German Alexander Popp.
Elsewhere, US young gun Andy Roddick will look to show his fans that he can live up to the hype which has surrounded him ever since he won US claycourt events at Atlanta and Houston two years ago and followed up on hardcourt at Washington.
Roddick ousted Agassi on the way to winning at Queens' and dismissed fellow big-hitter Greg Rusedski in the second round before seeing off Spaniard Tommy Robredo.
The American is now looking and sounding more and more like a champion in waiting. Today's showcourt action (x denotes seed):
Centre Court: 1pm: S. Williams (US x1) v E. Dementieva (Russia x15); P. Srichaphan (Tha x12) v A. Roddick (US x5); D. Nalbandian (Arg x6) v T. Henman (Brit x10)
Court 1: A. Sugiyama (Jap x13) v K. Clijsters (Bel x2); M. Philippoussis (Aus) v A. Agassi (US x2); S. Grosjean (Fra x13) v J. C. Ferrero (Sp x3)
Court 2: V. Zvonareva (Rus x16) v V. Williams (US x4); R. Federer (Switz x4) v F. Lopez (Sp)
Court 3: L. Davenport (US x5) v S. Asagoe (Jap); J. Henin-Hardenne (Bel x3) v M. Pierce (Fr)
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