Henman Fades on Clay Road to Home Grass

Tim Henman's two ambitions this year are to win Wimbledon - an eternal quest - and to reach the end-of-season Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, a competition reserved for the world's leading eight players.

By reaching his first semi-final on clay here in the Monte Carlo Open, he took another firm step towards that date in China. But his 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 defeat by Spain's Carlos Moya under floodlights on Saturday night raised all the old arguments as to why he may never achieve his most cherished aspiration, namely the Wimbledon title.

The crude assumption is that if he can perform well on clay, his least favourite surface, Henman will be even better equipped to emulate Fred Perry on grass. Performing well on clay, with its extended rallies, demands a high level of concentration, and there was some evidence last week to suggest the British No1 has perhaps tightened the obvious weakness in what he described as his "high-risk game".

For the most part, except for a horrible first set in his quarter-final against Sweden's Thomas Johansson, he achieved a level of consistency, coupled with periods of high-octane tennis, that was a pleasure to watch. This success gave him great pleasure, for he clearly relishes the challenge of clay and knocking the specialists out of their stride.

The Moya match was always going to be exceptionally difficult, the Spaniard having won this tournament in 1998, followed by the French Open title. Back problems have hampered his progress since but he is currently close to his former best, and the closeness of the semi-final was to Henman's immense credit. Had he managed to hold his serve at the beginning of the third set, having initially broken Moya, it is possible the Spaniard might have lost heart.

Henman recognised this well enough: "I was 1-0 and 40-15 up and certainly the momentum had swung hugely in my favour. He was clearly getting frustrated." But thereafter Moya increased the intensity of his ground strokes substantially whereas Henman, struggling with a strained stomach muscle, visibly faded. "The main problem was that with every shot it felt like I was trying to hit as hard as I could, and that's not really the way I'm used to playing."

But it is the way he has to play against the top players and always has been. Because Henman has no major weapons - no huge forehand or backhand, and a less than reliable serve - he has to perform at an optimum level, eyeballs out, in order to hold his own with the very best on any surface.

Wimbledon, where the points are shorter, offers him his one chance to win a slam, but even on grass he can be made to appear frail - witness his defeats by Pete Sampras (twice), Goran Ivanisevic and Mark Philippoussis over the past four years. The big hitters always place a tremendous strain on his game, as did Moya. Obviously he must keep telling himself that he is improving, although unfortunately no amount of technical progress can properly compensate for his innate lack of power.

It was, however, a good week for Henman. "I just want to keep building on that. I think the way I am moving and the way I'm hitting from the baseline is a good sign. I've got all the tools to do some damage on this surface."

Other than in Monte Carlo, where he also reached the quarter-finals last year, such damage has been strictly limited. The acid test of his progress will come in Rome in two weeks' time, and finally Roland Garros, where he has never progressed beyond the last 32.

In yesterday's final a somewhat jaded Moya lost 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to his fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who won the title in Rome last year and has been a semi-finalist in the French Open for the past two years. Ferrero, aged 22, missed the Australian Open with a knee injury and has since suffered a stress fracture to his foot, but he is clearly coming into form at exactly the right time for Roland Garros at the end of next month and may well take the title.

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