Tennis: Henman battles back after an early scare

TIM HENMAN battled back from early trouble in his President's Cup match yesterday to keep his title defence alive in Tashkent.

The British No 1 and world No 11 beat Eyal Ran of Israel, 6-4, 6-1, and next plays the Italian Stefano Pescosolido in the quarter-finals today.

Henman dropped his serve in the first game, immediately broke back, but was broken again to level the first set at 4-4. However, he won eight of the next nine games to advance - and remains on course to take on Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final.

At the Compaq Seniors event in Paris, Argentina's Guillermo Vilas beat Bjorn Borg - 20 years after losing to the Swede in the French Open final. Vilas, who at 46 is the oldest player at the Paris tournament, won 6-4, 2-6, 10-7, the last set being decided by a tiebreak.

"Nothing has changed. Maybe you just feel that your half of the court is a little bigger to cover," Vilas said.