Tennis: Henman still hopeful of Hanover hopes dented

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL has three things in common with Pete Sampras, the world No 1. He is American, he is nursing a back problem and he has a 100 per cent record against Tim Henman.

The British No 1 stumbled against Gambill for the second time in six months yesterday at the Eurocard Open here, losing in three sets, just as he did in Tokyo in April. Yesterday's defeat cost Henman valuable points in the race for one of the two remaining places in the eight-man field for the ATP Tour Championship in Hanover on 24 November, and denied him another crack at Sampras in today's quarter-finals.

Gambill, ranked No 50 in the world, broke Henman's serve only once. That was in the third game of the opening set, and Henman immediately broke back. But the Briton let himself down by double-faulting in two tie breaks to lose the third round match 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 after two hours and 14 minutes.

Two of Henman's rivals for Hanover, Karol Kucera and Petr Korda, lost ground by losing in the second round, but Richard Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champion, may be about to make a late run. The Dutchman served brilliantly yesterday to defeat Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-4. Agassi has already secured one of the places.

Krajicek, who today plays Goran Ivanisevic, another challenger for Hanover, postponed a knee operation to compete during the indoor season. Krajicek rates his prospects of qualifying for Hanover as "basically minimal", emphasising that "the difference between me and Tim is only two spots, but it is like 400 points, or even more".

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, another of the men who could deprive Henman of his place in Hanover, also advanced yesterday. The former French Open champion overcame the American, Todd Martin, winning 6-4 7-5.

Henman, while disappointed with yesterday's result, remains optimistic of accumulating the 250 points that would guarantee his place in the top eight when the counting stops on 16 November. "I am still very happy with the situation I am in," he said. "The winner this week will probably pick up 500 points, the winner in Paris next week will get 500 points and the winner in Moscow and Stockholm will probably get 300 points. So there are still plenty of points to play for and plenty of points for me to pick up."

Gambill did the picking up yesterday, when Henman, the world No 9, became his first top 10 conquest. The 21-year-old from Spokane had a small but vocal group of supporters, including his father and coach, Chuck, and his mother, Diane, among some 200 spectators on Court Two. Some remarks, while points were in progress, were distracting, and in the fourth game the umpire, Lars Graff, requested silence.

Henman said he was not affected by playing in a small hall after starting the tournament on the Centre Court - "if anything, it is probably easier to see on that court, because on the Centre Court the ball comes out of the people" - but a smashed racket at the end of the match was evidence of his frustration with his performance.

Solving a number of his problems with aces - 18 in all, sometimes in clusters - Henman was frequently put under pressure on his second serve. A double fault on the second point of the tie-break in the first set hastened a decline to 0-4. A second double-fault, which left Henman trailing 1- 5, was incentive enough for Gambill to take the shoot-out 7-2.

Henman recovered to win the second set in only 28 minutes, playing some impressive tennis. But after taking Gambill to deuce in the third and ninth games of the final set, Henman was the man under pressure. He saved three break points to avoid a 3-5 deficit, but came adrift again in the tie-break, losing the first four points and double-faulting for the eighth time for 1-5. Gambill could not be caught from there, winning 7-5 with a service winner on his second match point.

"Tim didn't get a few first serves in on key points, but on other points he was aceing me left and right," Gambill said. At other times the American was beating Henman left and right with the two-handed groundstrokes he plays on both sides. "I played a little better from the baseline," Gambill said. "But the tie-breakers told the story. I played the better tie-breakers. He made a few errors."

Henman would not argue with that. "There definitely wasn't too much wrong with the way I played," he said, "but I did play two poor tie-breaks. I was 4-0 down before anything began to happen. That is too big a lead."

A couple of tie-break also did for Boris Becker, his bold performance as a wild card being terminated in the third round by Goran Ivanisevic, 7-6, 7-6. The Croat won the first shoot-out 7-2, and the second 7-5. It was their 19th meeting and Becker leads 10-9.

"The way I have been playing in the last three matches gives me great satisfaction," the semi-retired Becker said, confirming that he would play in Paris and Stockholm. He is also sorting out a schedule for next year, but confirmed that Wimbledon and the three other Grand Slams would not be on the list.