TIM HENMAN, originally a reserve for this week's highly lucrative end-of-season Grand Slam Cup in Munich, will now play Germany's former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich in the first round tomorrow.

Three Americans - Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Todd Martin - pulled out, and Henman was called up along with Sweden's Thomas Enqvist and Switzerland's Jakdb Hlasek.

Henman was due to be paid £30,000 for being a non-playing reserve. He will now receive double this amount and could theoretically end the week winning £1 million.

The British number one has never played Stich before and will fly to Germany today to practice on the fast indoor court. Henman has not played since winning the British title against Greg Rusedski at Telford last month.

By not playing, Sampras will lose more than £200,000, but he clearly had no wish to return to Germany after his recent exhausting ATP final victory over Boris Becker. Despite all the money on offer, the Grand Slam Cup, which is open to the 16 players who have had the best results in the four Grand Slams this season, is not treated seriously by many of the top players. Peculiar defeats have become commonplace.

Not that this will worry Henman one jot. He now has the opportunity to increase his earnings substantially.