Henman's Wimbledon dream is over

Tim Henman’s Wimbledon dream is over for another year.

It took Sebastien Grosjean just 32 minutes this afternoon to finish off the British number one 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-4 when the match resumed for its fifth session on Centre Court following the rain delays of yesterday.

Henman – trailing by two sets to one, but leading 2-1 in the fourth set - needed to start swiftly, yet it was the Frenchman who was again swiftest to find his best form.

He broke the Henman serve in the seventh game with a series of fabulous returns, the shoulder-high cross-court backhand on game point a contender for shot of the tournament.

It was the type of stiletto thrust guaranteed to shatter the confidence of an opponent.

It needed an immediate riposte and it looked as if Henman might have provided it when he stepped up the aggression to win two break points on the Frenchman’s next serve.

Unfortunately, Henman could not convert them, Grosjean delivering a couple of unreturnable serves.

To his credit the British number one kept battling, chipping and charging to try to wrest the initiative at the net, but the quality of Grosjean’s returns, like yesterday, was just too good.

Henman was forced to save a match point in the ninth game, coming up with a pinpoint-precise serve of 112 miles-per-hour, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

And Grosjean put him out of his misery in the next game with a service game of utter perfection – a booming ace, a couple of outstanding groundstrokes finished off by a tame backhand return into the net which was the last act of Wimbledon 2003 for Henman.

At least Henman was generous in his congratulations to the man from Marseille, who took his place in the semi-finals and must now hope that his defeat of Henman is a good omen.

The player who beat the British hope in his four Wimbledon semi-finals - Sampras twice, Goran Ivanisevic and Lleyton Hewitt last year – went on to become champion.

For Henman, however, there is the realisation that another year has past, one in which the comfort of the draw offered his best chance to date of realising his ambition of becoming the first Briton for 67 years to lift the men’s singles trophy.

Next year he will be 29 and the young guns beginning to make their mark in the men’s game will offer an even tougher challenge.

Indeed former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker spelled it out when he said: “Henman was outplayed. He didn’t have the weapons he needed to beat Grosjean.”