Events of 2001: No1 Henman v Ivanisevic

No 1 Tim Henman v Goran Ivanisevic

Alan Mills was not looking happy. Only 51 minutes' play had been possible on Wimbledon's second Saturday, the women's final between Venus Williams of the US and Justine Henin of Belgium had been postponed, and the men's semi-final, involving Tim Henman and Goran Ivanisevic, was unfinished. Mills, the Wimbledon referee since 1983, was itching to talk to Henman, Ivanisevic and Australia's Pat Rafter, who had defeated Andre Agassi the previous day, but instead he had been dragged into the interview room, along with the All England Club chairman Tim Phillips and the chief executive Chris Gorringe, to face the press.

He fidgeted with his walkie-talkie, shuffled his feet and stared around with thinly disguised impatience as the Sunday newspaper journalists, short of much in the way of play to write about, pressed all three at considerable length about a whole range of matters, ranging from the near certainty of a Monday final and its logistical and security implications to that hoariest of SW19 chestnuts, a centre-court roof.

Gorringe, as usual, was reasonableness personified and Phillips, a public relations man to his fingertips and instrumental in making the championships a much more welcoming and altogether less stuffy place during the past couple of years, dealt with each question carefully and considerately. But for Mills, the players' man, this was sheer purgatory.

"You can imagine how I felt. I didn't want to talk about the roof and everything - I just wanted to get away and speak to the players and then come back with their answer," said Mills, who over the years has become almost a household face during Wimbledon fortnight - or a fortnight and a bit this year. Alas for him, his shining visage is invariably the harbinger of doom and gloom as he peers around the stop net, ready to call the show off.

But the players trust his judgment implicitly and know he will do everything in his power to give each and every one a fair crack of the whip. At the time there was some suggestion that Ivanisevic and Henman might finish off their semi-final on the Sunday and then play the final after Williams and Henin had completed the women's final. But Mills was dead against that.

"It was my definite opinion, my personal opinion, that the final should be played on the Monday," he said. Rafter had agreed, and Mills finally escaped the press conference to track down Henman and Ivanisevic, who immediately made it known that they were of like mind. "When I asked them individually, they mirrored each other. 'Yes, when I win I want to play Monday.' They both said that. Exactly the same," said Mills, chuckling.

And so that wretchedly disappointing Saturday drew to a close. Henman, having lost the 1998 and 1999 semi-finals to Pete Sampras, had believed the gods were finally with him when the American, who had previously lost only one match on the centre court in eight years, went out in the fourth round against Switzerland's Roger Federer. Henman never admitted this in public, but it was in his eyes.

Alas for Henman there was another, greater force moving through the tennis firmament. Ivanisevic, the wild card and three-time runner-up, was being beckoned by destiny, and destiny had no eyes for the British No1's ambitions.

Perhaps Henman's time may still come. He remains adamant it will. "Without doubt," he said. "I've always believed that. I certainly feel, with my game, I'm better than the vast majority, certainly on grass. Add to that the fact of playing at home, playing with the support I have. I certainly in my heart know that I will win."

By most people's reckoning, including that of Ivanisevic, Henman had the semi-final won on the Friday, when at 6.18pm, and after almost two hours' play, the covers came on with Oxford's finest leading 5-7, 7-6, 6-0, 2-1. Henman dropped only four points in that third set, won in less than 15 one-sided minutes. He must have played it over and over in his head the next day as the pair waited for the infuriatingly light rain to stop.

"I usually talk to players and tell them roughly what the weather forecast is. Neither of them left the ground on the Saturday, but they were in different locker rooms, with Goran deciding he wanted to be upstairs. It was drizzling most of the time and you really had no idea whether it would stop. But I always give players plenty of time to re-prepare. Both of them accepted it with good humour. They are both very good professionals and they sat back and waited," said Mills.

Many were still blaming Friday's scheduling for Henman's demise. The semi-final between Rafter and Agassi had gone on first, and fingers were being pointed, some in the direction of Mills. "Everything was considered. Television was one of them, certainly. But that was not the final say-so. It's always easy in hindsight for people to say you knew it was going to rain, or this, that and the other, and that we should have done things differently. But starting at 1pm we felt it was reasonable to complete two five-set matches. Unfortunately the Rafter-Agassi semi-final went to 8-6 in the fifth, and that put the pressure on."

That pressure got to Henman. He led 3-1 in the fourth-set tie-break but still lost the set, then Ivanisevic went out to a 3-2 lead in the fifth set when play was halted for the day on the Saturday evening at 6.29. It took the Croat only 30 minutes to close out the match on the Sunday, no fewer than 45 hours and nine minutes after the first ball had been struck on the Friday.

"Today was a match of the nerves, nothing to do with tennis," said Ivanisevic. In brutal terms, his nerve held and Henman's failed. But it was a damn close-run thing.

"People have said that it was the weather which ruined Tim's chances of reaching the final, but it was also the weather that kept him in the tournament in the fourth round against Todd Martin," said Mills. "It's swings and roundabouts."

True enough, but this may have been the closest Henman ever gets to a Wimbledon final, let alone the title - whatever his inner convictions. For Tim Henman it was not so much swings and roundabouts as a long and swooping slide into despond.

What happened next...

"If somebody, one month ago, had told me, 'here is the paper to sign that you are going to be in the final of Wimbledon, but you have to lose', I would have said: 'Give me the paper, I sign.' But now, you know, I don't want to get another plate. I have already three plates. If some angel comes tonight in my dreams and say, 'OK, Goran, you going to win Wimbledon tomorrow but you not able to touch the racket ever again in your life', then I say, 'OK'."

The bargain with the angel was not necessary. Ivanisevic won his final and achieved his dream, defeating Pat Rafter 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 in the first Wimbledon final played out from start to finish on a Monday. Grand-slam finals are frequently rather disappointing and one-sided but this one had everything, including an exuberant crowd of 13,370 that brought total commitment from start to finish, as befitted such an extraordinary story.

And so, injury permitting, the Croat, having lost Wimbledon finals against Andre Agassi (1992) and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1998), will hit the first ball on centre court next year as reigning champion. If he finally bows out at Wimbledon few will be surprised. His tennis life is fulfilled.

For Tim Henman, life is very much unfulfilled. He finished the year ranked No9 in the world, one place higher than 12 months before, but it brought him scant pleasure. After losing to Ivanisevic he took on a new coach, Larry Stefanki, but the partnership brought little solace.

He lost in the third round of the US Open to Belgium's Xavier Malisse and failed to reach the end-of-season Tennis Masters Series final in Sydney. And so he begins again in Australia next month, with everything geared to those two Wimbledon weeks. And each year the road gets a little steeper and a little harder.