Henman Wilts While Murray Blooms at Wimbledon

Posted on June 24, 2005

The Wimbledon website breathlessly said it had "not seen anything like it since 2002 when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi both went out on the same day to relative unknowns." But to those who have followed tennis beyond the French Open and this year's grasscourt season, the upsets Thursday of No. 6 seed Tim Henman and No. 4 Rafael Nadal were nothing to reach for the asthma inhaler over.

While Nadal was stunning in muscling his way to the Roland Garros title, he was the first to tell you that this year's Wimbledon would not be his grasscourt coming-out party. After an exhaustive claycourt run and grasscourt preparation that amounted to one match, a first-round loss at Halle, Nadal himself was not shocked at being ousted 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Thursday by unseeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, a former Wimbledon junior finalist.

"He played better than me," Nadal said. "I am playing good on grass. But any player, when he serves good all match, it's difficult. And Muller served at a very good level all the time. It's not easy."

For the time being Nadal will struggle to find players who get less juice on their first serve than he does, with his delivery in need of vast improvement before he can get deep into the second week at the All-England Club.

While the skillful Spaniard evokes images of past baseliners who've conquered the lawns such as Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, Muller came off the court thinking Nadal has his work cut out for him.

"But still I think maybe Nadal is never going to win Wimbledon," Muller said. "He is not playing serve-and-volley, so I think it's tough for him to win Wimbledon."

Henman was living on borrowed time after coming back from 0-2 sets in his first-round match, and Brit fans were hoping rather than expecting a run from their man who has now failed to reach a semifinal in 11 tournaments played in 2005.

"I've certainly won my fair share of matches like that in that environment, and I got myself back into it," said Henman after losing 8-6 in the fifth to unheralded Russian Dmitry Tursunov, saying he couldn't have played much better. "To not be able to finish that off and not come out of that with a win is disappointing."

The 30-year-old Henman would not bear any talk of retirement, noting a sore shoulder he has not been able to shrug off.

"I don't think age played a part, but I would love to be able to serve 135 miles an hour into the corners and I probably can't do that now," Henman said.

For Tursunov it was a welcome return after a rash of injuries and a boating accident that sidelined him for a few months.

"Grass is a weird surface for me because I wouldn't say that I'm in love with it," Tursunov said. "I still prefer hardcourts, but it seems like I do really well on grass. You know, this tournament has been treating me well so far (smiling)."

But while the British bloom fell off Henman, another son of the empire shocked a seeded player to advance into the third round, with Andy Murray straight-setting No. 14 Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

"I knew that Tim had lost when I went on court," Murray said afterwards. "I wanted to keep the Brits going because I knew we'd get a bit of a pasting in the papers if we'd both lost."

The Czech Stepanek employed his trademark gamesmanship in the third set, trying to set off the Brit-Scot by delaying Murray when he was serving, but the youngster knew of Stepanek's tactics going into the match and persevered.

"I was a bit annoyed at him in the end, trying to put me off," Murray said. "He knows I'm young and he tried to put me off. But it didn't work and he looked a bit stupid in the end."

The other lone upset on the day was orchestrated by Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, ousting No. 33 seed Olivier Rochus in straight sets.

Seeded winners through to the third round were (9) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Hanescu), (12) Thomas Johansson (d. Pavel in four), (15) Guillermo Coria (d. Malisse in five), (18) David Nalbandian (d. Kucera), (27) Richard Gasquet (d. Elseneer in four), and (28) Jiri Novak (d. Santoro in four).

Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were Austria's Jurgen Melzer (d. Calatrava), German Alexander Popp (d. Arthurs 14-12 in the fifth), Russian Igor Andreev (d. Sanguinetti in four), Serb Janko Tipsarevic (d. Lu in five), and Novak Djokovic (d. Garcia-Lopez in five).

No. 2 seed Andy Roddick's match with Daniele Bracciali was suspended due to darkness with the American leading two sets to one after failing to close the match out in the third-set tiebreak.

Roddick, apparently miffed at being forced to taste Bracciali for at least one more set on Friday, stormed off Centre Court in an agitated state without the tradition walk-off with his opponent.

Scheduled for Friday at the All-England Club are (3) Hewitt vs. Justin "Time" Gimelstob, (1) Federer vs. (25) Kiefer, (26) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. (5) Safin, (10) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. Gael "Force" Monfils, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. (21) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (23) Ferrero vs. Florian "Oscar" Mayer, (31) Youzhny vs. Bjorkman, (2) Roddick vs. Bracciali (to finish), and (24) Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. Berdych.