Wash-out leaves Henman counting his luck

Unrelenting rain washed out semi-finals day at the Stella Artois tournament in London yesterday, triggering a refund of more than £250,000 to ticketholders who had paid up to £57 each in the hope of seeing Tim Henman and the Wimbledon champion, Pete Sampras, reach the final.

It is the 10th time in the tournament's 23-year history that the American-style "rain check" (covered by insurance) has been paid out. In addition, patrons, many of whom sat under umbrellas in a vain hope of seeing some tennis, will be offered priority to buy tickets for next year's Stella.

The semi-finalists, who had waited for the best part of six hours in the hope of getting on court, will now play their matches at the same time this morning. A toss of the coin by the ATP official Weller Evans last night resulted in the match between Henman and South Africa's Wayne Ferreira gaining Centre Court prominence, while that between Sampras and the defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt, is staged on Court One. The gates at Queen's Club will open at 10.30am, with play scheduled to begin half an hour later. Tickets for the outside court will be on sale for £5, with the proceeds going to charity. The doubles semi-finals will be held on Courts 2 and 9. The final will not start before 2.30.

Queen's presented a dismal scene in the early evening gloom, though nine members of the ground staff in bright red parkas enlivened things by forming up to spell out the message printed on their backs TIME 4 HOME. Henman said it was the first time the setting for one of his matches had been decided by a coin toss. Now he has the benefit of full home support on the main court against a tough opponent who won this title in 1992 and was runner-up the following year.

"It's a good idea," he smiled, "especially if you win it, though it's a difficult decision for someone to make. It was just lucky that it went my way." Sampras, who was forced by the weather to play two matches on Friday in order to get to the semi-finals, will be less happy. The prospect of a final only an hour or so after a semi against one of the toughest competitors on the circuit will not be his idea of sensible preparation for his attempt to land an eighth Wimbledon title, with the risk of a muscle strain.

Sampras leads Hewitt 4-2 in their career head-to-head record, but the 20-year-old Australian's two wins were big ones. The first was here, by a score of 6-4, 6-4, 12 months back, while the other came at the Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon last December, again a straight sets win by a score of 7-5, 6-0. For Henman, a repeat of the final he played at Queen's against Sampras in 1999 would provide a perfect measuring stick of his progress since then in the lead-up to what he hopes will be his best Wimbledon.