Henman Frightens, Delights Brits at Wimbledon

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."