Henman starts campaign against Bachelot
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Your support makes all the difference.Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski have discovered the identity of their first-round opponents at Wimbledon.
Henman will play France's Jean-François Bachelot while Rusedski faces his fellow left-hander Jürgen Melzer of Austria. Both players have come through this week's qualifying tournament here.
Jane O'Donoghue and Anna Hawkins qualified for the Wimbledon women's doubles in emphatic style here yesterday. The British youngsters took command after a nervous start, sweeping to a 7-6, 6-1 win over their opponents Adriana Barna, of Germany, and Erica Krauth, of Argentina.
The match of the day was the contest between Russia's Dinara Safina, Marat Safin's 16 year-old sister, and Zuzana Ondraskova. Both players attempted to out-hit each other and it was the Czech's greater experience which eventually swayed the outcome.
Safina served for the match and later held match point only to run out of steam and succumb, after two hours and seven-minutes, 4-6, 6-2, 8-6.
Morocco's Hicham Arazi recovered from a set down to reach the semi-finals of the Liverpool International at Calderstones Park yesterday.
The 28-year-old lost the first set on a tie-break to Australia's Andrew Ilie but won the second then grabbed the crucial break in the first game of the decider to secure a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 victory.
Arazi's grass-court pedigree has taken him to the third round at Wimbledon three times in the last four years, where he has twice lost to Henman. He warned the Briton that his hopes of winning his home title for the first time could be reduced by facing one of the most open and competitive fields for years.
Arazi said: "It is very competitive on grass now. Everyone has learnt on the surface and they are playing well. Guys like Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt are not scared of Pete Sampras any more, and they just go for it.
"Tim has reached a few semi-finals and I really think he could win it. But he has got to control the pressure. In front of your home crowd, it is possible to try too hard."
Lleyton Hewitt continued cutting a swathe through his grasscourt opposition in the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, yestersday, beating Mikhail Youzhny, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, in the second round.
The Australian, seeded at No 1 for Wimbledon, is defending his title. Last week Hewitt won a third successive Stella Artois Championship at Queen's Club and is again looking in spectacular form on the surface heading into the third grand slam of the year.
It was not such good news for Hewitt's girlfriend Kim Clijsters, however, as the Belgian top seed was beaten 7-6, 6-2 in the third round by Tina Pisnik. The Slovenian will next play the fourth seed, Elena Dementieva, after she ignored a poor second set to beat the fifth-seeded Bulgarian, Maggie Maleeva, 6-2, 0-6, 6-1.
France's Arnaud Clement eased into the third round of the men's draw, brushing aside American Michael Russell, 7-5, 6-0, while Argentina's Guillermo Canas knocked out the Dane Kenneth Carlsen, 6-4, 6-4.
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