Henman produces sharp performance to crush wild card

A couple of rare occurrences took place on a medium pace indoor court in Brighton late in 2000: Goran Ivanisevic broke all his rackets and had to default against Lee Hyung-Taik, of South Korea, in the second round, and Tim Henman won an ATP tournament in Britain for the first time, defeating Lee in the semi-finals.

Eight months later, Ivanisevic managed to keep most of his rackets intact at Wimbledon, and defeated Henman in the semi-finals en route to one of the sport's most dramatic triumphs in the final.

Those events came to mind at the Stella Artois Championships here yesterday because Wimbledon is fast approaching, Henman is among the favourites, and Ivanisevic will not be there. Ah, yes, and Henman is due to be re-acquainted with Lee in the quarter-finals here today.

The British No 1 was altogether sharper yesterday in defeating Robby Ginepri, a 19-year-old American wild card, 6-1, 6-2, than in his opening match against Neville Godwin, of South Africa, on Wednesday. Henman allowed Ginepri only eight points in the opening set – and only one off his serve. The first set lasted only 18 minutes, and Henman was only delayed in the second set when it came to serving out the match at 5-2. He was twice taken to deuce before converting his fourth match point with a typical backhand volley.

Ginepri's inexperience on grass was evident, although he had to overcome Marc Rosset, of Switzerland, the 1992 Olympic champion, in the second round. As Henman pointed out, however, the big-serving Rosset, unlike himself, tends to do his work from the baseline rather than at the net.

Lee, No 117 in the ATP tournament entry system, has busied himself beating Magnus Larsson, of Sweden, Japan's Gouichi Motomura, a qualifier, and Vince Spadea, the American who ended an embarrassing sequence of defeats in 1998 by eliminating Greg Rusedski in the first round at Wimbledon.

Henman followed up his Brighton win against Lee by defeating the Korean again in straight sets in the second round in Cincinnati last August, and ought not to be troubled too much this afternoon.

Should Henman advance to the semi-finals, he would play either Wayne Ferreira, of South Africa, the 1992 champion, or Raemon Sluiter, of the Netherlands. Ferreira overcame Mark Philippoussis, of Australia, yesterday, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, while Sluiter was the beneficiary of Karol Kucera's retirement because of a strained left knee at 3-1 in the opening set.

None of this may have a bearing on what transpires at Wimbledon, of course, any more than yesterday's demolition, by all accounts, of Pete Sampras by Nicolas Kiefer on a grass court in Halle, Germany. As Henman commented: "I'm sure it's not what Pete wanted, but does that mean he won't play well at Wimbledon? I don't think so. I still fancy his chances."

So, too, does Todd Martin, although the 31-year-old American favours Lleyton Hewitt and Henman, last year's Queen's finalists, ahead of his illustrious compatriot, at least in his Fantasy Tennis team to be found on ATPtennis.com. "You've got to have Hewitt," Martin says. "He's ready to win Wimbledon. That guy is so good, especially on the grass. Henman also has a real chance this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if the winner came from either of those two players."

Martin will be able to update his opinion of Hewitt today after playing the Australian world No 1 in the quarter-finals. Yesterday, Martin, the ninth seed, defeated the gifted Xavier Malisse, of Belgium, seeded eighth, 7-5, 6-3. Hewitt overwhelmed Malisse's compatriot, the small but game Olivier Rochus, 6-2, 6-1.