Henman Satisfies Home Fans, for Now

One man’s loss, well, make that three men--Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin--can be taken as a gain for another very English man. A questionable gain, though, as they were far away from fourth-seeded Tim Henman in the Wimbledon draw, clear over on the other side.

Sampras, Agassi and Safin would have been a problem for Henman only in the final. Henman has never played in the Wimbledon final, having reached the semifinals three times. If form holds, No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia could be his semifinal opponent.

That doesn’t matter for the moment. Since England was ousted from the World Cup, they’re taking the good news where they can get it. The tabloids viewed Wednesday’s departures of Sampras, Agassi and Safin as a huge boost for Our Tim. Good news cut the other way, however.

The Daily Mirror ran pictures of the three ousted players in Thursday’s editions, all looking suitably grim, and a picture of a smiling Henman with this headline: “No pressure Timbo, but choke now and we’ll never forgive you.”

Then there was the Sun, splitting the pressure between Henman and countryman Greg Rusedski: “Out Out Out. Tim, Greg ... if you can’t win it now, you never will....”

Henmania was the theme on Day 4, ruling Centre Court during his tense 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 second-round victory over Australian Scott Draper. It spread through the grounds, most visibly on Henman Hill, a spot for a little more than a thousand spectators who could monitor his movements on the big screen.

The sound apparently could be heard over on Court 1 during No. 16 Nicolas Escude of France’s 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 second-round win over Marc Rosset of Switzerland. Rosset teased Henman about Henman Hill.

“He was blaming me to a certain extent, saying there was so much noise he couldn’t concentrate,” Henman said. “Hopefully, the name is going to stick, Henman Hill.”

He viewed it as quite extraordinary to have something named after him at Wimbledon because it was “for a guy who has been coming here since he was 5.”

After losing the first set, a nervous Henman felt the tension from the fans, fearing another upset after the tumultuous turn of events at Wimbledon. Wimbledon 2002 has hardly been ordinary through the first four days. Consider this statistic: There are two lucky losers remaining, American Jeff Morrison and George Bastl of Switzerland, and only three of the top 10 seeded players, Hewitt, Henman and fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia.

Morrison was responsible for the elimination of another top player, defeating No. 9 and French Open finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (5), fighting off two set points in the third. Feliciano Lopez of Spain beat No. 10 Guillermo Canas of Argentina, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5, 10-8, fighting off six match points.

What helped Henman survive, in part, was the little extra help from his supporters. Last year, he said, was the first time he used their backing, showing more emotion and fire.

“I think it’s just experience,” he said. “I know how advantageous, how positive they can be. And I’m going to use everything I can.”

But he wasn’t about to declare the departures of Safin, Sampras and Agassi as an advantage, realizing that would be premature and inappropriate.

“Which half of the draw was playing [Wednesday]?” he asked, smiling. “Is that my half? There’s a lot of experts out there. A large majority of the experts, I haven’t paid a great deal of attention to it. I think that’s enough said, really, isn’t it?”

Upsets, though fewer, were not limited to the men. No. 5 Kim Clijsters of Belgium continued her slide, which has been caused, in part, by injuries to her shoulder and upper right arm. A French Open finalist last year, she lost in the third round at Roland Garros to Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina.

Here, Elena Likhovtseva of Russia defeated Clijsters, 7-6 (5), 6-2, in the second round, and will next face something of a rarity in the third round ... a British woman.

Wild card Elena Baltacha of Britain defeated No. 32 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, and showed some fire on the court behind her glasses and an independent spirit off it. She wore a shirt into the interview room with a slogan of the company French Connection, which can’t fully be described in this newspaper.

“Still hasn’t hit me yet,” she said, looking shocked by the victory.

The tabloid reporters were more interested that she tossed her racket than the fact this was the third time in 13 years that a British woman reached the third round at Wimbledon.

“I mean, I’m not an aggressive person or anything,” she said. “I don’t go around beating people up or anything. It was just that moment, I just threw my racket. It happens.”

The 18-year-old has an impressive sports lineage. Her father, Sergei, was a soccer player, having represented the former Soviet Union and had turns at Ipswich Town and in Scotland. Her mother, Olga, was a pentathlete and brother Sergei is a member of the Scottish under-21 soccer team.

“Probably grass is my favorite surface, but I still need to win matches on hard [court] and clay,” she said. “I’m still working bloody hard on that.”

Like Henman, she was thrilled by the crowd support. “People were going bananas,” Baltacha said. “It was brilliant. My hair was standing up on the back of my neck.”

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Glance

Attendance--41,410. Last year on the fourth day it was 41,440.

Seeded winners--Men: No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 4 Tim Henman, No. 16 Nicolas Escude.

Seeded winners--Women: No. 1 Venus Williams, No. 4 Monica Seles, No. 6 Justine Henin, No. 10 Silvia Farina Elia, No. 12 Elena Dementieva, No. 16 Lisa Raymond.

Seeded losers--Men: No. 9 Juan Carlos Ferrero to Jeff Morrison, No. 10 Guillermo Canas to Feliciano Lopez.

Seeded losers--Women: No. 5 Kim Clijsters to Elena Likhovtseva.

Stat of the day--Only four of the top 14 men’s seeded players have survived the first four days.

Quote of the day--”This morning I woke up and I was a nervous wreck. But when you grow up playing tennis, what you dream of is playing on Centre Court.”--Jeff Morrison.

On TV: Third round, 7 a.m., TNT.