Henman Survives in Five at Wimbledon, Henin Out
Posted on June 22, 2005
Henin Shocked by Greek in Opener at WimbledonFormer No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne will have to wait another year to complete her career slam, as on Tuesday the Belgian was unceremoniously hedged from Wimbledon 7-6(8), 2-6, 7-5 by Greece's Eleni Daniilidou.
Coming off the French Open title, Henin-Hardenne was tagged by many as the slight favorite in the competitive grasscourt field, looking to surpass her effort of 2001 when she reached the Wimbledon final before being stopped in three sets by Venus Williams. The loss put to an end Henin-Hardenne's 24-match win streak, all on clay. The Belgian, somewhat mistakenly in hindsight but conceding to her leg injury, chose to skip the two weeks of Wimbledon warm-up tournaments.
"I didn't have the best preparation for coming here," said Henin-Hardenne, who complained of additional pain from her hamstring injury. "That was the worst draw I could get. So I'm not gonna be positive today, and I have no excuse. But it's been difficult time for me on Court No. 1 today. I never felt the good rhythm, and I missed some opportunities in the third set."
The Belgian struggled on serve in the third set, breaking back for 3-4 but forced to save two match points while serving at 4-5. She was then broken serving at 5-6, going for the throat-clutcher and double-faulting on match point.
"I got tight," Henin-Hardenne said. "And for sure when you think about your injury, everything is getting worse."
With two French Open championships under her belt, Henin-Hardenne only needs Wimbledon to add to her Australian Open (2004) and US Open (2003) titles to complete a career slam.
No. 4 seed Serena Williams escaped an upset herself, coming from a set down to defeat fellow African-American Angela Haynes 6-7(12), 6-4, 6-2.
"I felt like I was feeling my way around. I felt like I made some errors that shouldn't have been made," Serena said. "I did have a major let down as I felt I should have won the tiebreak but I was so angry I just thought I must go to the third set."
Defending champ Maria Sharapova defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-2, 6-2 in an inconsistent display to advance into the second round, debuting her new golden shoes.
"I can get a lot better from here obviously," Sharapova said. "I did enough to win and, you know, pretty satisfied."
Other seeded winners on the day were (8) Nadia Petrova (d. Ruano Pascual from a set down), (11) Vera Zvonareva (d. Weingartner 6-0 in the third), (14) Venus Williams (d. Birnerova), (16) Nathalie Dechy (d. Camerin), (19) Ana Ivanovic (d. Douchevina), (20) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Linetskaya from a set down), (26) Flavia Pennetta (d. Gagliardi), (29) Marion Bartoli (d. Fujiwara), and (32) Virginie Razzano (d. Castano from a set down).
Three other seeds were ousted Tuesday in (18) Tatiana Golovin (l. to A.Bondarenko), (21) Francesca Schiavone (l. to Brandi 9-7 in the third) and (31) Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues (l. to Srebotnik).
Other un-seeds into the second round Tuesday were Russian Tatiana Panova (d. Raymond), Israel's Shahar Peer (d. Tu), Americans Laura Granville (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova) and Jill Craybas (d. countrywoman Harkleroad in three), Brit Jane O'Donoghue (d. Groenefeld from a set down), Korean Yoon Jeong Cho (d. Santonja), France's Severine Beltrame (d. Schaul), Spanish former champ Conchita Martinez (d. K.Bondarenko), Zimbabwe's Cara Black (d. Ondraskova), Italy's Mara Santangelo (d. Poutchek), Bulgarian teen Sesil Karatancheva (d. Janes in three), Argentine Gisela Dulko (d. Fedak), Czech Kveta Peschke (d. Randriantefy), the Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko (d. Garbin), France's Stephanie Foretz (d. Chladkova in three), and Aussie Nicole Pratt (d. Cervanova from a set down).
On tap for Wednesday are (5) Kuznetsova vs. Mirza (Indian won their last meeting), (15) Clijsters vs. Irvin, (3) Mauresmo vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, (1) Davenport vs. Jamea "Action" Jackson in an all-American, Klaschka vs. (6) Dementieva, Diaz-Oliva vs. (17) Jankovic, Washington vs. Selima "S'close" Sfar, Vinci vs. Anne "Kosmo" Kremer, (22) Farina Elia vs. Vento-Kabchi, (9) Myskina vs. Nakamura, (27) Vaidisova vs. Pastikova, Antonella Serra "Nevada" Zanetti vs. Arvidsson, Perry vs. Tanasugarn, Shaughnessy vs. (13) Likhovtseva, Kirilenko vs. Maleeva, and Strycova vs. (30) Safina.
Henman Frightens, Delights Brits at Wimbledon
Britain's sometimes-favorite son Tim Henman gave fans a fright then a thrill Tuesday at Wimbledon, dropping the first two sets in his opening-round match before sweeping the final three to narrowly advance into the second round.
Henman edged Finn Jarkko Nieminen 3-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in approximately 3-1/2 hours, not exactly the start to his 2005 Wimbledon campaign the British No. 1 was hoping for.
"I wasn't particularly pleased with the way I was playing, and he was certainly making life difficult for me," Henman said. "I was flat with my attitude and my body language on the court. I think the crowd could see that, as well. Two sets to love down, you've got to -- you know, you've got to dig in and play with what you've got. Slowly but surely I started to play better. I started to, you know, serve, very, very consistently. You know, found a way to get through it."
No. 2 seed Andy Roddick had no such problems in his opener, pounding Czech Jiri Vanek in straight sets.
"I felt like it was a pretty good performance. I put a lot of returns in. I played a sloppy game on my serve in the second set, which ended up making the set closer than maybe it should have been," Roddick said of the second set breaker. "But, you know, three sets, I'm through to Round 2. I felt like I hit the ball pretty cleanly. That's what you're looking for in the first round."
Other seeded winners Tuesday were (4) Rafael Nadal (d. Spadea, bagel in the third), (14) Radek Stepanek (d. Ginepri in four), (15) Guillermo Coria (d. Behrend, dropping only five games), (18) David Nalbandian (d. Sluiter), (27) Richard Gasquet (d. Kohlschreiber in four), (28) Jiri Novak (d. Wessels), and (33) Olivier Rochus (d. Goldstein).
Nadal benefited from a shoulder injury to his American opponent Spadea.
"I won 6-4, 6-3, 6-0. I think is a good match, and is a little bit easy," said Nadal in English before going to the interpreter card. "It turned out to be a little bit easier than I expected it to be."
Five seeded players were ousted on the day in (17) Dave Ferrer (l. to Spanish countryman Garcia-Lopez), (19) Tommy Haas (l. to Tipsarevic, retiring in the second after stepping on a ball and twisting his ankle), (20) Ivan Ljubicic (l. to Melzer), (30) Robin Soderling (l. to Andreev in four), and (32) Filippo Volandri (l. to Arthurs).
Un-seeds into round two were Thai Danai Udomchoke (d. Koubek 8-6 in the fifth), Italy's David Sanguinetti (d. countryman Seppi) and Daniele Bracciali (d. Karlovic 12-10 in the fifth), Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu (d. Clement in five), Belgians Gilles Elseneer (d. Starace) and Xavier Malisse (d. Marray in five), Spain's Alex Calatrava (d. Ketola), Brit Andrew Murray (d. Bastl), France's Fabrice Santoro (d. Wawrinka in four), Romanians Andrei Pavel (d. Karanusic in four) and Victor Hanescu (d. Carlsen in five), German Alexander Popp (d. Haehnel in four), Serb Novak Djokovic (d. Monaco), Luxembourg's Gilles Muller (d. Mantilla, who retired in the first with injury), Slovak Karol Kucera (d. Horna in four), Belarus' Max Mirnyi (d. Schuettler), and Russian Dmitry Tursunov (d. Almagro).
"When I got on the court, I was hitting the ball well from the start," said Murray after delighting British fans by beating Bastl, the last man to beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon. "The courts were nice and slow, which I quite like, but I was still getting enough on my serve. Thought I played pretty well."
Malisse almost had a meltdown with some heckling fans during an extended five-set win.
"From the back I just made a couple stupid mistakes and that's why it took five sets," the X-Man said. "I didn't -- I served -- my serve went up and down, went good the first set, went down little bit, second, third, went better fourth. You know, it was just a little bit up and down today and just made it a little harder than it should have been."
No. 9 seed Sebastien Grosjean and French countryman Michael Llodra were suspended due to darkness at two sets all.
Scheduled for Wednesday are Mark "The Scud" Philippoussis vs. (5) Safin, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. "Grinning" Greg Rusedski, (1) Federer vs. Minar, (3) Hewitt vs. Hernych, (26) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. Sherwood, Bjorkman vs. (8) Davydenko, (23) Ferrero vs. H.-T. Lee, Gael "Force" Monfils vs. (22) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (31) Youzhny vs. Lisnard, in doubles (2) Bryan/Bryan vs. Spaniards Ferrer/Ventura, Di Mauro vs. (25) Kiefer, Florian "Oscar" Mayer vs. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, in doubles Aussies (7) Arthurs/Hanley vs. Germans Schuettler/Waske, Zimbabwe's (4) Black/Ullyett vs. Italians Bertolini/Volandri, (6) Bhupathi/Woodbridge vs. Americans Oliver/Palmer, Justin "Time" Gimelstob vs. (29) Massu, (10) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. Udomchoke, Berdych vs. Burgsmuller, (24) Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. K.Kim in an all-American, (9) Grosjean vs. Llodra (to finish), and Zib vs. (21) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez.
"I assume I'm going to have to play a very -- you know, just a consistent match," said Philippoussis on facing Safin. "Mentally I've got to be strong. I can't allow myself to have any lows during the match. It's definitely something I feel like I'm going to be up for and definitely looking forward to it."
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Justine Henin-Hardenne is now 0-2 career against Eleni Daniilidou on grass...How bad does Serena Williams look (on court)? Angela Haynes was playing in her first grass match and nearly defeated the two-time Wimbledon champion. Serena and sister Venus Williams both won on the Graveyard Court...Tim Henman is 3-0 in five-set matches in the first round at Wimbledon. The Brit has now won his last six five-setters. Andy Roddick has lost his last five..."Dr." Ivo Karlovic served a record-tying 51 aces in the loss to Daniele "Choppin'" Bracciali. Joachim Johansson also served 51 in a four-set loss to Andre Agassi in the fourth round at the Australian Open this year...Maria Sharapova has won 18 straight matches on grass...Weather: A magnificent day is ahead for Wednesday...From Russia's Pravda: "Maria Sharapova, much disliked by the Western press for her indifference to her image in the media, is celebrating a victory again."...Kim Clijsters on her shaky knee: "It's almost back to normal. I just came from the gym. I did my exercises. That's something that I'll have to do for the rest of my career, I guess, just to make sure that it's stable. Sort of all the muscles around it are very strong and they protect the knee, the medial ligaments. So that's something I'll probably have to do, you know, with the wrist. But it feels good to be playing -- without the tape, as well."...Enamored of Mark Philippoussis, fellow Greek Eleni Daniilidou blew out another kiss Tuesday after her win over Justine Henin-Hardenne: "My wish is to really play mixed doubles with him. I hope so one day." And what is the difference between playing mixed doubles, and really playing mixed doubles?...American "The" Donald Young, who lost in the second round of the juniors at Wimbledon, will receive a Indy main draw wildcard...Martina Navratilova bagging on Maria Sharapova in The Guardian: "They are all possible contenders and Maria Sharapova has not been impressive this year. She should have won the Australian Open but let that slip away; on the hardcourts after that she was not that great and she was below par on clay. She says that grass is her favorite, but we haven't seen the proof this year."