Henman on a charge into semi

Barry Newcombe13 April 2012

Tim Henman booked his place in the semi-finals of the Stella Artois Championship at Queen's Club this afternoon.

And with Greg Rusedski waiting in the wings to take on defending champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, there is the prospect of a record two British play-ers in the last four.

Fourth-seeded Henman played his part in setting up the climax with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Thailand's Paradorn Scrichaphan, the man who gave him so much trouble at Wimbledon last year.

On that occasion, the Thai took the first set, but Henman survived the scare to eventually take the match.

Henman jumped into a 2-0 lead today but was pulled back to 2-2 when he produced too many errors against the service return.

Henman was bothered by a mobile phone when he double-faulted in the sixth game and served for the first set at 6-5, but won just one point. He took the tie-break 7-4.

Serving for the match, and glancing at the clouds gathering overhead, he missed three match points before taking his win with a decisive backhand volley.

In the semi-finals tomorrow, Henman plays the South African Wayne Ferreira.

The British No1 said: "I wasn't able to play as well as I did against Wayne Arthurs in the last round for different reasons. Scrichaphan stayed on the baseline so I didn't have a target to hit at all of the time.

"The Ferreira game will not be easy but I am happy to have the opportunity," he said.

Ferreira, the 1992 champion, was in sharp form to beat the Dutchman Peter Wessels 6-3, 7-5.

Pete Sampras, twice champion and twice runner-up, went through to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Dutch left-hander Jan Siemerink.

Sampras was on court twice last night before rain drove him off with a 2-1 lead. Today Sampras quickly took command against a player he had beaten four times before and only needed to work a fraction harder in the late stages when Siemerink saved four match points.

Sampras moved on to a quarter-final against fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill.

Hewitt, the 20-year-old Australian who beat Sampras in the final here last year, earned himself a quarter-final against Rusedski with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Byron Black.

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