Tennis: Henman sights Hanover goal

TIM HENMAN remains at number nine and Greg Rusedski stays at 13 in the latest world rankings announced yesterday, despite their inactivity last week.

But Henman is still in line to be one of the eight players to qualify for the ATP Tour World Championship in Hanover next month for he is eighth on that list with 2,427 points to his credit, 313 points ahead of ninth man, Czech Petr Korda.

Only points won since 1 January count in the "Road to Hanover" race and there are just three weeks to go with tournaments in Stuttgart, Paris and Stockholm still to come.

Rusedski, who is 13th in the Hanover table with 1,762 points, has an outside chance of qualifying but he would have to win at least two of the next three tournaments to make the World Championship for the second successive year.

There are only two places left with Marcelo Rios of Chile, Australian Patrick Rafter, Americans Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and Spaniards Carlos Moya and Alex Corretja having already qualified.

Men's tennis is in danger of being overtaken by the women's game in terms of popularity, according to the triple Wimbledon champion John McEnroe. The American believes fans are becoming increasingly attracted to the female side of the sport because there are more personalities and rivalries than there are in the men's game.

McEnroe was speaking after adding the Champions' Senior tournament at Melbourne Park in Australia to his lengthy list of honours in the sport with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Johan Kriek in the final.

He said: "You have the Williams sisters, who are cocky, Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf trying to come back and, of course, Anna Kournikova.

"There are more stories there and the guys are going to have to get it together. I'd look at it as a challenge."