Tennis: Henman ready for Olympia

TIM HENMAN, the British No 1, will make a rare home appearance when he competes in a special doubles event at the Honda Challenge at Olympia, London, from 3 to 6 December.

Honda are the sponsors for the second successive year of this seniors tournament, which will include John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.

Henman will play with one of the pair in the doubles, against his close friend Andrew Richardson and another senior player on the opening day of the tournament.

Mats Wilander of Sweden, Yannick Noah and Guy Forget of France, Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, Australia's Pat Cash and Iran's Mansour Bahrami will join McEnroe and Borg in the senior singles.

Bahrami, who entertained a capacity crowd with a series of trick shots when this event was staged at the Albert Hall last year, was given the second of two wild cards yesterday. The London-based Cash had already received the first.

The tournament will also provide Henman, who won the doubles last year with his coach David Felgate, some much needed relaxation after an exhausting year.

Venus Williams trounced Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-1 in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow yesterday.

The American dropped two games after going ahead 4-1 but quickly regained control and took only 50 minutes to win the match.

Her only gift to Likhovtseva in the second set was in the sixth game. Up 5-0, Williams double-faulted and committed three unforced errors to lose the game.

Williams was pleased with the quick match after playing well past midnight on Wednesday in a doubles game she won with her sister, Serena.

Of her No 5 ranking on the WTA tour against Lindsay Davenport's No 1 - she beat Williams last week in the finals of the European Championships - Venus said: "I have exactly what I deserve right now. And she [Davenport] has exactly what she deserves. What I deserve is No. 5."