Struggling Henman scrapes into second round
The sixth-seeded Henman, who improved to 41-11 lifetime here, has reached at least the quarter-finals eight times in the last nine years.
“It was touch and go for a long time,” Henman said. “First two sets I was really struggling with my form. Then I got flat physically, really struggling to get some energy into the match, and the crowd probably the same. But you’ve got to keep fighting and play with what you have on the day.
“There wasn’t so much but I’m proud of the way I dug in and found a way to get through. You can’t win it on the first day but you can certainly lose it and it’s a good one to get through.”
From the moment he slipped 15-30 down in the opening game, a nervous Henman looked to be in danger. Nieminen passed at will in the opening stages, putting huge pressure on the Henman serve-volley game and forcing numerous errors. There were brief moments of hope for the home crowd, notably when Henman broke at the start of the second and had two more break points in game 11. He finally gave them something to cheer by grabbing the third set, but even then he needed three chances to convert at 5-4.
In a similarly tight fourth set, Henman upped the pressure in game 12 to level the score and he took that momentum into the decider with an immediate break. At 5-2 up on Nieminen’s serve, a diving volley took Henman to his first match point, but it took an error from the Finn on his third chance for the Briton to seal victory.
“My form was ordinary at best,” admitted Henman. “I struggle in those conditions - the courts have changed so much over the years - it was heavy, slow and the balls weren’t coming through.
“But it’s the same for everyone and I’ve got to find a way to perform better.”
But it was a bad day for big reputations. Justine Henin-Hardenne, the seventh-seeded French Open champion who had won 24 straight matches, was stunned by a game Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, 7-6 (10-8), 6-2, 7-5.
“Well, it’s pretty hard, but it’s tennis, it’s life, and you have to keep going,” Henin-Hardenne said. “You have good moments. You have, I wouldn’t say bad moments, but harder moments like today, and you have to keep going. I mean, I will have other very good moments in my career, I’m sure of that, but you need to live these kind of things. You cannot win all the time.”
In this one, she saved a pair of match points on serve at 4-5 in the third set. But after Daniilidou held for a 6-5 lead, the Belgian fell behind, 15-40, and double-faulted to end the match.
In the first-set tiebreaker, Daniilidou blew three set points and saved one before taking the set when the Belgian missed a forehand.
Maria Sharapova got off to a fine start in her quest for a second straight Wimbledon title with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives at the All England Club.
The second seed from Russia, Sharapova last year parlayed winning the grasscourt warmup event at Birmingham into her first Grand Slam title with an upset of Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final.
“First rounds you never know what to expect,” Sharapova said. “You know, I played her three weeks ago on clay. It was totally different, obviously. The pace of the court here is a lot different. I think she struggled with that a little bit. But other than that, yeah, I mean, I can get a lot better from here, obviously. I did enough to win and, you know, (I’m) pretty satisfied.”
American Venus Williams, the 14th seed who won back-to-back titles here in 2000-01, reached the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Czech lucky loser Eva Birnerova.
Other early seeded winners in the women’s draw were No. 11 Vera Zvonareva of Russia and No. 20 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Zvonareva rallied past German Marlene Weingartner, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0, while Hantuchova did likewise against Russian Evgenia Linetskaya, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
The second seed in the men’s draw, American Andy Roddick posted a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over Czech Jiri Vanek, who absorbed his 11th straight first-round defeat in a Grand Slam.
“I felt like it was a pretty good performance,” Roddick said. “I put a lot of returns in. I played a sloppy game on my serve in the second set, which ended up making the set closer than maybe it should have been. But, you know, three sets, I’m through to round two. I felt like I hit the ball pretty cleanly. That’s what you’re looking for in the first round.”
Guillermo Coria of Argentina, an excellent claycourt player who was the runner-up at the 2004 French Open, routed German Tomas Behrend, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, and No. 28 Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic posted a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4 win over Peter Wessels of the Netherlands.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
