Wimbledon 2005 News
By Eleanor Preston | June 21,
2005
 Grand
Slam tournaments, as a rule, start on a Monday
but it’s was hard not to feel that Wimbledon
2005 really got going on day two. It saw the first
major upset of the tournament in defeat for French
Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne knocked out
in the third round and Tim Henman torture his adoring
British public by coming from two sets down to
beat Jarkko Nieminen.
In between those two seismic events, Maria Sharapova
and her gold spangly shoes began the defence of her
2004 title with an unfussy straight sets win over Nuria
Llagostera Vives while Andy Roddick slipped quietly through to the second round
with 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 win over Jiri Vanek. Oh, and Serena Williams dropped a set
to Angela Haynes before coming through 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. To say it was a busy day
at SW19 is probably taking traditional British understatement a little too far.
Henin-Hardenne paid the price for a period of enforced
rest following her victory in Paris with what she admitted
was a sub-standard performance to lose 7-6, 2-6, 7-5
to Eleni Daniilidou, who did well to take full advantage.
The Belgian was hampered by the hamstring problem which she has been nursing
for three months and though she managed to play on it in Paris, the bends
and twists of grass court tennis proved to be more testing.
“I didn't have the best preparation for coming
here,” said Henin-Hardenne,
who missed her planned tune-up in Eastbourne after her doctors worried
that she might suffer a reoccurrence of the virus that
dogged her last year. “That
was the worst draw I could get. So I'm not going be positive today,
and I have no excuse. But it's been difficult time for me on Court
No. 1 today. I
never felt the good rhythm, and I missed some opportunities in the third
set. So
it's very hard to win when you play like this. But it’s been
a lot of things. It's been very short after the French. My
injury got worse in the last two days, too, so it's lot of things that
make the situation very difficult for myself today.
“I think my injury got worse because of the grass. You
have to be very low all the time. So it's going
to be my main thing in the next few weeks to treat my
injury, get better and get ready for the hard court.”
Henin-Hardenne’s defeat
was good news for Sharapova, who beat Llagostera Vives
6-2, 6-2 for it removed her from the Russian’s
side of the draw.
It might also turn out to be good news for the Williams
sisters, who are drawn to play each other in the fourth
round. While Serena struggled, Venus looked a little
more comfortable than her sister in skipping past Eva
Birnerova in two easy sets.
 The day was doused in brilliant sunshine, hot temperatures
and thus those who walked through the gates as it drew
to a close sported pink faces to go with cheerful smiles.
The noses would have been just as painful had Henman
lost on Centre Court – a prospect which looked extremely likely for most
of the afternoon - but the smiles would almost certainly have been absent.
Henman looked listless and tired, as if the very thought
of playing at Wimbledon made him ill, though he proved
that assumption wrong in the manner in which he fought
his way back into the match. It was a curious performance
and one which does not bode well for British hopes.
“I'm never going to lie down in any event but
here at Wimbledon,
you know, with the record that I've had and how much I enjoy playing,
I had to do something,” said Henman. Certainly as the match wore
on, the crowd started to get more and more into it. It's a good one
to get through. I
certainly wouldn't have enjoyed, you know, coming here and going
out in those circumstances. I hung in there. That’s pretty much all
there was to it.”
Henman knows that his Wimbledon didn’t just start on Tuesday, it very
nearly ended on Tuesday too.
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