Henman continues advance as Hewitt overcomes Martin

After nearly two hours of often tortuous tennis here last evening, Tim Henman advanced to the semi-finals of the Stella Artois Championships for the second year in a row.

Lee Hyang-Taik, of South Korea, whom Henman had beaten twice in straight sets on medium pace concrete courts in their previous matches, proved to be too good on grass for the British No 1's comfort, his display belying a world ranking of No 117.

Lee's skilful and enthusiastic challenge was aided by Henman's errors and his inability to convert his chances in the opening set. As a consequence, Henman's supporters had a nervous time until the second seed prevailed, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Henman, who secured only one of five break points in the first set, then managed to win eight consecutive games. Although his play continued to be erratic at times, his serve lacking consistency and reducing his overall aggression, Henman was able to wear Lee down.

In today's semi-finals, Henman plays Raemon Sluiter, a Dutchman who has won his last two matches on retirements. Karol Kucera was afflicted by a knee injury in the third round, and Wayne Ferreira's back gave way yesterday with Sluiter leading, 6-1, 5-4.

The other semi-final features Lleyton Hewitt, the top seed, against Sluiter's compatriot, Sjeng Schalken, who defeated Australia's Wayne Arthurs, 6-3, 7-6.

John McEnroe, who was regarded as the king of Queen's ­ at least when he was not berating the chairman's wife for demanding his practice court ­ has a rival in Hewitt.

The Australian world No 1 won his 13th consecutive match at the Stella yesterday and is only two victories away from emulating McEnroe's hat-trick of titles between 1979 and 1981. After his third title at Queen's, McEnroe went on to win the first of his three at Wimbledon.

While not quite the McEnroe of his time in terms of exquisite touch and explosive temperament, Hewitt does have his fiery moments. These have been kept in check this week, although he did have a comparatively mild disagreement with Todd Martin on the way to defeating the popular American, 7-6, 7-5, in the quarter-finals.

Hewitt, break point down at 3-3 in the second set when it started to rain for the second time in the match, was keen to finish the game. Martin went back to his chair, insisting that the grass had become slippery and dangerous and pointing out that he is a lot bigger than his opponent. The harder they fall? The umpire took the players off.

When play resumed, Hewitt lost his serve, but broke back straight away to level at 4-4. From that point, the Australian made the decisive shots, cracking Martin's serve in the 12th game to convert his fourth match point.

"It's always tough when you have a rain delay," Hewitt said afterwards, acknowledging Martin's point about the risk of injury.

Hewitt generally had the best of the exchanges on court, breaking for 2-1 in the opening set. But he lost his serve when serving for the set at 5-4 and was taken to a tie-break, which he won, 7-4. Hewitt's frustration at the rain delay was understandable, since he had already lost a 3-l advantage in the second set.

Alex Bogdanovic, Britain's most promising junior, won the 18-and-under title here yesterday, defeating Israel's Dudi Sela 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. The Belgrade-born left-hander has been given a wild card to sample the big-time at Wimbledon. So, too, has Paul-Henri Mathieu, the 20-year-old Frenchman who led Andre Agassi by two sets and 3-1 before losing in the fourth round at Roland Garros.