Henman can revive ailing British game

Home No 1 must improve level of performance at Wimbledon as the nation looks for inspiration to lift its flagging fortunes

Tim Henman has been able to play his way into the Championships at the expense of two opponents plucked from the middle shelf of the game. Another manageable task awaits him today in the person of Robin Soderling, of Sweden, the world No 152.

If Henman prevails, he will move towards the sharp end of the tournament for the fifth time in six years and mix it with the likes of the Argentinian David Nalbandian, last year's runner-up, the Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, the French Open champion, and either the durable American icon Andre Agassi or Mark Philippoussis, Australia's last man on the lawns.

A decade ago, rain delays sometimes helped British hopefuls into the second week of the tournament. Then along came Jeremy Bates to duel twice with the Frenchman Guy Forget in the fourth round on the second Monday. The order of their names on the Centre Court scoreboard spelled it out: Forget Bates.

Forget the nation's women players, too. Last week, for the first time in the Open era, which started in 1968, none advanced even as far as the second round. It would be reassuring if this could be called a blip, but it was as predictable as the groundstaff's running of the tarpaulin. Gone are the days when Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones, and Virginia Wade would light up the Championships by lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish, and Christine Truman, Sue Barker and Jo Durie were leading contenders.

It is almost taken for granted that Henman will keep his head while the scattering of Brits around him are losing theirs. "Business as usual," Henman calls it, with a smile and the suggestion of a shrug.

"The state of the British game is not particularly healthy, and that has been the case for quite a number of years," the 28-year-old Henman said. "We've got to break out of the rut we're in. It's been too long with the standard as poor as it's been."

David Felgate, Henman's former coach, has been appointed the Lawn Tennis Association's director of performance. "David says this is where we're at, and he's got a belief and a direction that he's going to take," Henman said. "He says, and I think it's important, that there aren't going to be any excuses. After working with David for so long, I believe he can have an impact. I know how brutally honest he can be and how tough he'll be on some of the players. And I'm sure it it will be a shock to them."

While Henman's words carry weight in the British game, his actions are crucial. "I'll have the biggest impact for British tennis if I keep winning and hopefully win this tournament one day," he says. "It's a big ask, but that's as much as I can do. There are a lot of other things that are out of my control. I can't do everything. I've got to leave it to the other people. I'm sure that at some stage later on I would like to get involved and try and help the game. But this is not the right time."

This is the time to improve on his performances in the opening two rounds, a grinding four sets win against Tomas Zib, of Austria, a "lucky loser" from the qualifying tournament, ranked No 154, and a more composed three-sets win against Michael Llodra, a French qualifier, ranked No 136.

The 18-year-old Soderling is greener than the grass as a Grand Slam competitor, and has done well to advance to far. In the first round, he answered the question about the big-serving Martin Verkerk's potential on the manicured lawns by eliminating the Dutch French Open finalist in four sets. In the second round, however, Soderling relied as much on his unflappability as his technique to recover from a set down and 5-1 down in a second set tie-break to overcome Gilles Elseneer, a Belgian qualifier, in four sets.

"I've only seen him play four or five games against Verkerk in the first round," Henman said. "So maybe the Beeb can help me out and give me a couple of videos to watch." The evidence is likely to suggest that Soderling may have difficulty returning Henman's serve, as long as the 10th seed is able to blend power and placement.

Having gone through a period of uncertainty about whether to use his attacking skills to the full or stay back on some of his serves, Henman wisely seems to have decided that there is nothing to be gained by being drawn into lengthy rallies, even though the balls are bouncing high on the hard, true courts.

"Boris [Becker] mentioned at Queen's that perhaps I should think about chipping and charging a bit more. I didn't play particularly well against [Sebastien] Grosjean [in the semi-final], but in the last couple of games [of that match] I was a lot more aggressive. I thought I chipped and charged pretty well [against Zib] in the first round, but got into rut of staying back on my second serve. Against Llodra, it was better."

As he stood on the verge of a place in the last 16, Henman was asked if he thought that the fates were against him at Wimbledon, just as in decades gone by they seemed to conspire against Ken Rosewall and Ivan Lendl. "I try and keep it as simple as possible," Henman replied. "I'm giving it my all. And if it's not good enough, it's not good enough."