Kiefer adds to Henman's workload on Labor Day

Labor Day. Tim Henman's 30th birthday. And while the majority of workers here take a day off, the British No 1 will be hoping his suspect back holds up as he attempts to advance to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time in his career. He may not even risk cutting his cake.

Labor Day. Tim Henman's 30th birthday. And while the majority of workers here take a day off, the British No 1 will be hoping his suspect back holds up as he attempts to advance to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time in his career. He may not even risk cutting his cake.

Considering that this time last week Henman doubted if he would be able to start the tournament, it is a wonder he has ignored the twinges through 14 sets of tennis played over nearly 10 hours on concrete courts.

There are degrees of back problems, of course, including those that flatten an average person, and those that élite athletes seem able to control and prosper. Henman, with the help of Debbie Kleinman, an American chiropractor, has mastered his dodgy lumbar while overcoming the giant Ivo Karlovic in five sets, the ailing Jérôme Golmard in four sets, and the obdurate Michal Tabara in five sets.

"I'm actually getting paid by the hour," the fifth-seeded Henman joked, having advanced to the last 16 with a tortuous victory, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, against Tabara, a compact Czech whose fine shot-making over the three hours and 28 minutes belied his ranking of No 140 in the world.

The man who now stands between Henman and a place in the last eight is Nicolas Kiefer, of Germany, who has not dropped a set and is one of the form players of the American hard court season.

Since losing to Thomas Johansson, of Sweden, 6-0 in the fifth set in the first round on the grass at Wimbledon, the 27-year-old Kiefer has been a finalist in Los Angeles and Indianapolis and a semi-finalist in Toronto, where he was defeated by Andy Roddick, the US Open title-holder. And in the third round here on Saturday, Kiefer overwhelmed Johansson, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, after an hour and 38 minutes.

The 19th-seed Kiefer says he has been surprised by his sharpness, having felt flat and weary when arriving in New York. Although Henman has won five of their seven previous matches, including the past three, they have not met since 2002.

"It's going to be tough," Henman said, "but I'm playing well enough to beat him. I don't think his second serve is as big as Tabara's. There are elements of my serve I need to improve. I was struggling when I wasn't disciplined with a plan on each point ­ whether I was going to serve-and-volley, serve down the middle, whatever. I'm just going to try to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity."

And the medical update? "Playing at night, I felt a bit tighter than against Golmard," Henman said. "My biggest problem was towards the end. I wasn't too bad when I was running around, but I felt a bit stiff when I sat down for the change of ends. At 4-3 in the fifth, I didn't sit down. I just walked around. I didn't feel tired physically, so I didn't need to save my legs."

Henman's supporters are accustomed to a bumpy ride, and his match against Tabara was not easy to watch. Unfortunately, the tension was generated by uncertainty rather than drama. While Henman was playing on Louis Armstrong Stadium, most of the cheering and chanting emanated from the Grandstand Court, which backs on to it.

There, Sargis Sargsian, of Armenia, was in the process of a thrilling comeback from two sets to love down that ended with him defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu, of France, 7-4 in a fifth-set tie-break. So great was the atmosphere on the Grandstand, that spectators along the top level in Louis Armstrong, turned their backs on the toiling Henman and Tabara and joined in the fun.

Many of those focusing on the events on Armstrong spent much of the match wondering if Henman would be able to hold serve after making a break. After being outplayed in the opening set, he lost one of his two breaks before taking the second set and then lost a 3-1 lead in the third. He had to scrap for the fourth set after breaking twice for 3-0, and clung to a slender lead in the final set before breaking in the concluding game.

All is not well in the Maria Sharapova camp. The 17-year-old Wimbledon champion's father, Yuri, whose signals led to her being warned for a coaching violation during Saturday's third-round defeat by Mary Pierce, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, has created a breach in his daughter's back-up team. Yuri Sharapova headed a coaching trio with Robert Lansdorp and Mauricio Hadad. But Hadad quit within hours of Saturday's match, apparently frustrated by Yuri's dominating influence in his daughter's training.

Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati advanced to play each other in the quarter-finals, their first meeting at the US Open. Williams, the third seed, defeated Patty Schnyder, of Switzerland, yesterday, 6-4, 6-2. Capriati, the eighth seed, overcame Ai Sugiyama, of Japan, 7-5, 6-2.