Henman Bounces His Racket, but He Doesn’t Get Bounced

The ball toss might have been a bit off, but Tim Henman of Great Britain had no such problems with his racket toss early in the third set against Sandon Stolle of Australia.

An unnerved Henman threw his racket. It bounced and landed on the other side of the net.

“Quite talented, I’d say,” Henman said, with a slight smile.

The sixth-seeded Henman was in a playful, understated mood after defeating Stolle, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in 3 hours 6 minutes, Wednesday in a second-round match at the Australian Open.

Two developments accounted for his post-match demeanor. On a decidedly subpar day, he escaped the fate that took down fourth-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain, No. 12 Albert Costa of Spain and No. 13 Cedric Pioline of France on Tuesday, all in first-round matches.

Secondly, four legitimate contenders for the title are out of his way--top-ranked Pete Sampras, who did not make the trip because of exhaustion but is playing golf in the Bob Hope Desert Classic, Marcelo Rios of Chile (stress fracture in back), Moya and No. 11 Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia (back injury).

Moya, the French Open champion, looked strangely out of sorts and off balance against Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, who won, 6-7 (9-7), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, as Moya shanked a wild forehand on match point.

Moya had been considered one of the favorites because he reached the final here two years ago. But his training was interrupted by a shoulder injury in December and he was felled by a stomach virus earlier this month during the Hopman Cup team competition in Perth.

“When you have no confidence, you cannot do anything,” Moya said. “No confidence from the baseline, so there was no confidence from the net. Today nothing worked. I played really bad.”

Henman did not play his best, either, but somehow muddled through a cool and windy day. He was asked whether this was one of his best chances to win a Grand Slam event, considering the absence of several top players.

“Hopefully, I have still got a lot more opportunities in front of me,” said Henman, 24. “But I think you are quite right to say with those guys no longer in the tournament, it’s a good opportunity for everyone still in it.”

Henman admitted the result against Stolle might have been different in 1998.

“I think 12 months ago, there’s a very good chance I would have lost that match,” he said. “You’ve got to learn from your experiences, and to be able to come through, it’s a big bonus.”

He joked about botching two easy overheads. Was it the sun or wind?

“I wish I could blame both of those,” he said. “There’s a fundamental rule that you are taught pretty early on and that’s to keep your eye on the ball.”

Henman smiled.

“I don’t know if my eyes were shut,” he said.

He is in the same half of the draw as American Michael Chang. They may not end up playing here, but they certainly won’t be meeting when the United States faces Great Britain in the first round of the Davis Cup in April at Birmingham, England.

Chang, Andre Agassi and Sampras all said they will not be available. Henman would never entertain such a thought.

“You talk about [Todd] Martin and [Jan-Michael] Gambill,” he said. “I’ve played Gambill twice and never beaten him. I mean, Agassi and Sampras, I’m sure is their first-choice team. But they still have got guys that would be capable of backing them up.

“If anything, it would make life a little easier. It’s pretty much stating the obvious though, isn’t it?”

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Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport wasted little time in her second-round match, defeating Florencia Labat of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1, in 47 minutes. Davenport, the U.S. Open champion, has lost seven games in two matches.

Davenport was troubled by a sore right arm the latter half of 1998 but recently underwent 5 1/2 hours of magnet therapy on her arm.

“It has not hurt one bit since then,” she said, laughing. “My mom made me do it. A friend of hers told her about it and she know takes the credit.”

Eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland has been steadily improving, but she suffered her earliest setback in quite some time, losing in the second round to talented baseliner Amelie Mauresmo of France, 6-7 [7-1], 6-4, 6-3.

Schnyder, who won five tournaments last year, reached the fourth round at the Australian Open in 1998. She was inconsistent against Mauresmo, double-faulting six times and committing 50 unforced errors.

Third-seeded Jana Novotna, playing here for the first time since 1995, survived a difficult second-round test, beating Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.