Henman routed by rampant Roddick

Tim Henman joined fellow Brit Greg Rusedski in crashing out of the US Open at the first hurdle after going down 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 to fourth seed Andy Roddick in New York.

Henman went into the contest with his hopes high on the back of a win over Roddick en route to taking the Legg Mason Classic in Washington recently.

However, this time he found the 20-year-old American, who has since won back-to-back Masters Series events in Montreal and Cincinnati, just too athletic and too strong.

Roddick secured the first break of serve as early as game three after Henman double-faulted when 15-40 down.

Henman had a chance to hit back when his forceful tactics of approaching the net at every opportunity earned him a break point in game eight, but he hit his backhand return tamely into the net and Roddick was soon 5-3 up.

The American then capitalised on the third of his set points as Henman’s first serve began to crack under the pressure of some lethal returns.

Henman was rewarded for his resilient work at the net with a break at the start of the second set but Roddick continued to harass his opponent and levelled at 3-3 thanks to some wonderfully athletic play.

A scrappy set saw each player enjoy another break before Roddick enhanced his reputation as a tiebreak specialist, taking his record in that department to 27-11 for the year.

The writing was on the wall when Roddick secured an early break in the third set and he completed a comprehensive win when again dismantling Henman’s serve in game nine.