Tursunov hoodoo hits Henman again

Tim Henman’s French Open challenge ended this afternoon when he failed to launch the fightback he needed in his rain-curtailed match against Dmitry Tursunov.

Henman was trailing by two sets to love when the match was halted for bad light last night with the local clock having raced past 9pm.

But while Henman took the third set in fine style he failed to take his numerous chances in the fourth set, eventually going down 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4.

It was the third time in the last four Grand Slams that Henman, who received a warning for an audible obscenity in the second set, has lost to the big-hitting Russian.

Henman clearly had decided to be more aggressive and it paid off in the third set when he lost his serve in the fifth game but broke back twice to take the initiative.

He was growing in confidence in the fourth set and he should have broken the Tursunov serve in the sixth game.

He was 0-40 up, missed the easiest of smash volleys at the net on 30-40 and then went on to squander nine break points in all in a marathon game.

He promptly lost his own serve in the next game and instead of being 4-2 up he was 4-3 down.

It proved crucial, Tursunov going on to serve out and take the match to progress to a third round encounter against Argentina’s David Nalbandian.

After all his failed chances, however, Henman, will regard this as the one which got away.