Rain brings early halt to Henman semi

Tim Henman spent only six minutes warming up for his Wimbledon semi-final against world number one Lleyton Hewitt on Centre Court today when he and his opponent were forced off by the return of rain.

The covers were still on at the scheduled start time of 12 noon but, despite the grey clouds over SW19 and a gloomy forecast, prospects had looked good after a delay of around half an hour.

The covers were removed and the Briton and the Australian emerged to a rapturous welcome at 12.37pm.

But after only a few minutes of knocking up, a light drizzle meant the players had to scurry off court.