Henman's Dream Bites the Dust

The pained, crooked-teeth grimace on Tim Henman's face said it all. For nearly four hours he battled against his own wobbly form and Russian Dmitry Tursunov's huge serve before losing in five sets: 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-8.

This second round defeat was Henman's earliest exit from Wimbledon since 1995 and, at 30, the chances of the British No1 ever winning Wimbledon now look over.

In truth Henman never looked comfortable, despite winning the first set. Off court, he attacked the ball girls ("Tell them to get their heads out of their arses and find me a Coke," he fumed at one changeover) and turned the air blue several times. On it, he never seemed sure of what approach to take. To serve and volley? Stay back? Or go for broke?

All three were tried with varying degrees of success. At two sets to one up, Henman finally looked like he had the beating of Tursunov, ranked 152 in the world, but then breakpoints were spurned, other chances missed, and the match slowly slipped away.

As the match went deep into the fifth set, Henman saved two match points and broke back for 5-5. But no sooner had Centre Court rose to acclaiming his fighting spirit than he lost his serve to go 7-6 down. This time there was to be no comeback as Tursunov wrapped the match - appropriately enough - with a thumping ace.

Afterwards the Russian, who beat Marat Safin in the first round here last year, expressed his sympathy for Henman.

"I really don't envy the guy. To manage to play with that kind of pressure for so many years is very difficult," he said.

"I think he didn't play his best match. There's so much pressure on him. When you're getting ready for a second serve on break point and someone screams 'Come on Tim' after a while that's got to get to you.

"I'm glad its over, it took me a while and the first time I had two match points and it was tough to let them go."

Those words 'tough to let go' apply even more to Henman. For over a decade the British No1 has come to SW19, dreaming that his might be his year. But these days his serve, after several shoulder ops, is simply not powerful enough. It's time to let that dream die.