Henman makes most of People's Sunday

Tim Henman revelled in the atmosphere of ‘People’s Sunday’ as he booked his place in the fourth round of Wimbledon for the ninth year in a row.

Cheered on by a partisan crowd who had queued for the 11,000 tickets on sale, Henman beat Morocco’s Hicham Arazi 7-6 6-3 3-6 6-2 on Centre Court.

The British number one recovered from 2-0 down in the fourth set to win the next six games and will now face last year’s beaten finalist Mark Philippoussis in the last 16 tomorrow.

Thousands were still queuing to get into the All England Club when Henman’s match began following defending champion Roger Federer’s easy win over Thomas Johansson.

Those inside saw Henman lose his serve to love to trail 2-1 before Arazi needed treatment on what looked to be a neck injury.

Henman broke back to level at 4-4, prompting Arazi to call for more treatment from the physio and the fans to perform a Mexican wave.

Henman lost the early advantage in the tie-break with two bad volleys but Arazi was unable to take control, the Briton battling back to take the set with a superb lob to ease the tension.

Arazi had won the last two meetings between the pair, both on clay, including a vital Davis Cup tie in Casablanca last year when Britain were relegated from the elite World Group.

Henman had won eight of their 11 matches in total however, most notably winning 6-3 6-3 6-3 at the same stage at Wimbledon in 2000.

Today’s match was nowhere near as straight-forward, Arazi again going a break up in the second set when he broke Henman to love.

The Moroccan was then 30-0 ahead on his own serve and looking certain for a 5-2 lead before Henman staged a brilliant comeback, winning the next 12 points in a row to surge 5-4 ahead.

The fifth seed duly served out to take the set 6-4 and move closer to a fourth round berth for the ninth year in succession.

It would not be a Henman match without some sort of a crisis however, Arazi taking the third set to get back into the contest.

At the third time of asking the 30-year-old was able to hold to the early break of serve, Henman unable to force a single break point as the left-hander took it 6-3.

It looked even bleaker for Henman at the start of the fourth set, another missed volley putting him 0-40 down in the opening game.

He managed to save the first two break points but could do nothing with the third, an excellent low return from Arazi forcing him to put a tough half-volley over the baseline.

A fifth set looked a certainty when Henman, trailing 2-0, faced three more break points, reviving memories of the last ‘People’s Sunday’ when Henman beat Paul Haarhuis 14-12 in the fifth set.

But with the crowd roaring him on, Henman crucially held his serve and broke Arazi in the next game to get back on level terms.

That was to prove the turning point of the match, Henman breaking serve again after running down an Arazi drop shot and curling a forehand winner down the line.

Henman held serve to win his fifth game in a row and made it six with another break of serve to seal victory in two hours 44 minutes.