Henman too weak to stretch Roddick

Tim Henman crashed out of the US Open in the first round to fourth seed Andy Roddick 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 on centre court last night, a victim of the recurring weakness that is undermining his Grand Slam campaigns.

Henman's serve has never recovered its venom following shoulder surgery last year and he could not live with the 140mph howitzers Roddick was firing over the net.

The British No1's good work at the net and solid ground strokes created chances in the second set, which he led 5-4, but he was broken to love with Roddick easily coping with a 112mph serve on the final point.

Henman used to be able to hurt opponents with his serve but those days have gone and with Greg Rusedski, the British No2, also struggling, Great Britain's Davis Cup tie in Morocco next month looks tougher by the day.

Henman and Rusedski were both beaten in the first round here suggesting they could be nearing the end of their competitive careers.

But Henman denied this and insists there is still more serving power to come from that right shoulder and a place in the World's top 20 is within his powers.

He explained: "If can play well in the Davis Cup and finish the year off strongly, then without really having played a great deal - after coming back from the operation - I am sure I will be back inside the top 20.

"I will play a full schedule at the start of next year and I can be knocking on the door. That's the way I view it and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be back up pretty high, pretty soon."

However, Henman's problems were encapsulated in the final game of a match that lasted two hours and six minutes. He needed to cause Roddick real problems to stay alive and proceeded to deliver a 100mph serve, followed by an 85mph effort and suddenly the American held two match points. He only needed one as Henman fired a forehand wide.

It was sweet revenge for Roddick following his loss to Henman at the Washington tournament last month, the only blemish on his otherwise pristine hard-court run in recent weeks, and highlighted the real difference between them. Roddick has numerous weapons, including a stunning serve plus enormous confidence, neither of which Henman offered.

Roddick has won 13 matches in a row and is short odds favourites to land the title on 7 September.

The momentum Henman had established by winning that Washington title was lost as he suffered second- and first-round losses in subsequent Masters Series events. He will slip even further down the world rankings and he could be as low as the 50s going into the final months of the season.

Only Wimbledon will take pity on Henman and make him a seed if he is outside the top 32 thanks to his marvellous record there.

Henman said: "Andy is the best server in the game right now and his results prove he is playing better than anyone. I had chances and needed to get something out of that second set. After that it was an uphill struggle."

While Henman was losing on the main show court, former French Open champion, Gustavo Kuerten, the 14th seed was being beaten in five sets by Russia's Dmitry Tursunov. Kuerten took a break in the final set and sat on his chair until security guards ejected a fan who had been heckling him.

In the women's first round, tenth seed Magdalena Maleeva and 16th seed Elena Bovina fell, but there were easy wins for second seed Justine Henin-Hardenne and sixth seed Jennifer Capriati.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in