E-Paper
Henman severely tested in Wimbledon opener
Tim Henman faced the ignominy of a first-round exit from Wimbledon on Tuesday before scraping a 3-6 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-2 win over Jarkko Nieminen.
At two sets down in the first round of Wimbledon Tim Henman wasn't about to panic -- he knew it couldn't get any worse.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not a good situation to be in, two sets to love down. But ... I didn't really feel like I was going to play much worse," he said after scraping a 3-6 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-2 win over obscure Finn Jarkko Nieminen.
"It was pretty clear for everyone to see that it was a struggle to start off with. I wasn't particularly pleased with the way I was playing, and he was certainly making life difficult for me. I needed to try and sort of break out of that."
"I was just frustrated for whatever reason. It doesn't happen very often. But I was struggling with my sort of incompetence to execute shots, and I needed to change that."
Henman is bidding to become Britain's first men's champion at Wimbledon for 69 years and said his desire to triumph at his home grand slam had driven him on.
"I'm never going to lie down in any event," the 30-year-old said. "But here at Wimbledon, with the record that I've had and how much I enjoy playing, I had to do something," the four-times semi-finalist added.
"And certainly I'll be looking to play better on Thursday."
Sixth seed Henman next plays Russian Dimitry Tursunov.
"He's not necessarily a guy that's had that much grasscourt experience," Henman said. "I'm going to be focusing a lot on my game. I still feel like if I improve, I've got a good chance."
