Henman through at Queen's

Tim Henman overcame an uncertain start to the Stella Artois Championships at Queen's Club to defeat South African journeyman Neville Godwin.

The second seed, who is carrying British hopes single-handedly after the early exit of all five of his countrymen, was forced to wait two days to play his first match and he looked decidedly rusty on Centre Court.

Twice a beaten finalist at Queen's, Henman made a poor start against an opponent he has beaten on both previous occasions, losing his first service game to love.

He broke back immediately but found his serve threatened in the third and fifth games and was forced to save break points in each before opening up a 3-2 lead.

The British number one then began to settle down and he looked more like his old self in the ninth game, which he won to love and he at last got the measure of the South African's serve in the next game.

A superb backhand return gave him an edge and Godwin missed an easy smash at the net to present his opponent with three set points. He saved two but missed another straight forward volley to hand Henman the set 6-4.

The confidence was oozing back into Henman's game and he made an impressive start to the second set, breaking his opponent at the first attempt and looking increasingly assured on his own serve.

Moving easily around the court, he blazed into a 3-0 lead and had a break point in the next game which Godwin rescued with the aid of a couple of deep serves.

The South African was beginning to look dispirited but he managed to save three break points in the sixth game and then produced two wonderful forehand returns in the next to break back.

The South African then double-faulted on break point to go 5-3 down but staged a thrilling fightback to take it into a tie-break.

Henman, amazingly, failed to win a point when he served for the match and Godwin then came up with a timely ace to level at 5-5 before the set went into the tie-break.

The Briton trailed 3-1 but produced two mini-breaks to run out a 7-4 winner and complete a 6-4 7-6 victory in what was his first match since he lost in the second round of the French Open.

He now plays the little-known Robby Ginepri in the last 16 after the American qualifier pulled off a surprise 4-6 7-5 6-4 victory over former Olympic champion Marc Rosset.

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