Wednesday, August 08, 2001
England's eyes focused on Henman
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — It's difficult to explain exactly how badly England wants Tim Henman to win a Wimbledon title. Unless you're from England.
“There's more pressure on Henman at Wimbledon than any player at any tournament in the world,” said Richard Eaton, who works for the Guardian, a daily newspaper in London. “If he'd win Wimbledon, he'd be one of the most famous British sportsmen of all time.”
For two weeks, the media is relentless. And the support overwhelming.
All of which contributes to the disappointment of this year's results.
Henman was leading Goran Ivanisevic in the semifinals 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0, 2-1 and serving at 40-30 when the match was suspended by rain.
No British man has been a finalist at Wimbledon in more than 60 years.
The next day, Ivanisevic came back to win the fourth set 7-6 (7-5), then led 3-2 in the fifth set. The rain came again.
On the third day, Ivanisevic closed it out and went on to become the first wild-card to win Wimbledon.
Henman, 26, was left to ponder the defeat. And a country's disappointment.
“To deal with a situation like that wasn't easy, but I'm the type of person that is pretty consistent in my emotions,” Henman said. “In truth, I've dealt with it as well as I could.
“I'm not someone who has huge highs and big lows. That's proba bly how I'm able to deal with the whole month around Wimbledon. It's pretty chaotic. A lot of people get pretty carried away with things.”
He is trying to put that behind him in his second event since Wimbledon. Henman plays his second-round match today against Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea at the Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati. Henman is 8-2 here since 1999.
He made a great run last year, beating Pete Sampras for the first time ever in the Round of 16 and upsetting Gustavo Kuerten in the semifinals.
A headline in London's Sunday Times proclaimed him the “Cincinnati Kid,”and said Henman was “on the verge of the biggest tournament victory of his career.”
He lost to Thomas Enqvist 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the final.
“Enqvist was fractionally better than me on that day,” Henman said. “I've always really enjoyed this tournament. When you played as well as I did last year, it just adds to the memories. I'd like to try and play even better this year.”
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