Henman swashes but then buckles

TENNIS: On the Philippe Chatrier centre court at Roland Garros they have an artist tucked in the corner with his brushes and boards.

His job is to sketch the players in water colour and present them with the picture after the match. The depiction of Tim Henman yesterday was done in broad, vigorous strokes. Henman in the air, towering above the net, his back arched and sprung like a bow; Henman defying gravity, movement and even the human form.

Sadly for the British number one, this was the work of an impressionist. After a brave and historic run that lasted 12 days on a surface he does not like, the Briton failed to take wings and soar under sullen Parisian skies, and lost in four sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, 7-5.

He had been promised sun to polish up the slow clay court, make it faster, but even that bargain was broken, instead rain forcing himself and Guillermo Coria back to the locker-room before a point was played.

"I'd chances in the middle, I'd chances at the end. That's sport. That's the way it goes," said the downcast player as he left the court.

The truth is no one really believed Henman could pull if off against Coria, a small and lithe athlete from Rufina in Argentina, whose speciality is putting in big mileage on clay courts. Well, no one believed it but Henman himself, quite the reverse of other times when everyone believed in him perhaps too much, he alone the doubter.

"It's a very fine line between being very aggressive and consistent," said Henman. "My level dropped fractionally and that gave him a chance to come back. I tried to play more consistently and maybe that gave him the rhythm he was looking for.

"In the fourth set the pressure was off me. He'd turned the match around and I was able to impose my style again. I played the best clay court player in the world and I was able to make him look quite ordinary."

As is often the case with Henman he offered great hopes at the beginning of the match, which gave him a convincingly won 6-3 first set. That form continued into the second but somewhere in the fight, the old Henman returned to haunt him. The big serves dried up, the touch at the net was fractionally off and the player wandered off the track. His meandering lasted for quite a while. Thirteen straight games he lost, his serve broken six times in succession.

"With his speed, I definitely felt there were occasions that I was trying to be too precise," said Henman. "Then you miss those shots and go further inside the line and he's chasing them down. It's difficult. When you go into a game with someone like Coria, he gives you nothing."

Henman will have nothing other than positive feelings as he departs for his beloved grass and the build-up to Wimbledon in just over two weeks' time.

"If you reflect that on Monday early afternoon I was down two sets and feeling awful," he said. "Sure today was disappointing but there's the break though of doing well at a Grand Slam outside Wimbledon. I feel very fresh, very eager and I'll look forward to hitting some balls on grass in a few days' time."