Wimbledon 2005 News
By Alix Ramsay | June 23, 2005

Tim who? As is always the way at Wimbledon, the courts are packed to the rafters with the faithful. Bedecked in Union Jacks and silly hats and with their faces painted red, white and blue, they sit and swelter, hoping that this year, at last, they will cheer a British champion to victory. And this day they did, as Andy Murray took Radek Stepanek apart in three marvellous sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Oh, and Tim Henman lost, too.

Now, let's not get carried away here - Murray is only through to the third round. But Murray is still only 18 and, until this week, his greatest claim to fame was winning the US Open junior title. Just three weeks ago he was getting thrashed in the semifinals of the French Open juniors. But just moments after Henman had succumbed to Dmitry Tursunov on Centre Court, Murray was setting British hearts aflutter again, outplaying a man ranked 299 places above him.

Stepanek, the No. 14 seed, should have sent the young whippersnapper packing - even Murray thought so. "I should lose comfortably," he said. But he didn't. Without a nerve on show, he strode onto Court One, whipped up the crowd and then whipped Stepanek. The Czech who had reached the semifinals of Queen's just days before, beating Greg Rusedski and Richard Gasquet and taking a set from Andy Roddick in the final, could not cope with Murray's intelligent tactics, his impressive serve and his cheeky returns.

Even when Stepanek was trying to distract him, tried a few stabs at gamesmanship, Murray was not to be fazed. Stepanek delayed Murray as he went to serve, he tried the cold hard stare when Murray lost a point and he played to the gallery, kissing the net cord when he nicked a fluked point.

"I was pretty disappointed with him in the end," Murray said. "He knows I'm young and he tried to put me off. But it didn't work, and he looked a bit stupid in the end.

"I knew that Tim had lost when I went on court. I wanted to keep the Brits going because I knew we'd get a bit of a pasting in the papers if we'd both lost."

So just how far can he go in a Wimbledon bereft of Tiger Tim. "Oh, I lose my next match," he said. That's what he said before he faced Stepanek.

Henman knows that he will get a terrible pasting when he reads tomorrow's headlines. The 30-year-old former national treasure was dumped out in the second round for the first time in 10 years. Tursunov had the stronger nerves, the better tactics and, at the end, the wind behind him as he sailed past the British No. 1 3-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Henman was not awful - he has played a good deal worse here and still won - but he just was not good enough. He has not been good enough for a while. His greatest chance to win in SW19 came in 2001 when, over three rain soaked days, he had the chance to beat Goran Ivanisevic and reach his first final. But Goran won - another case of a man with stronger nerves and a bigger game on the day - and since then Henman has promised the world that he would be back and he could win. But the promise has sounded hollow.

These days Henman knows that his days are numbered, and if the national expectation was overwhelming when he was a young and rising star, the personal pressure to try and prove himself at last is unbearable. At the same time, Henman's body is falling apart. He has two discs wearing away in his lower back, and his shoulder aches when he plays too long. What he used to call experience - and claim it as a major advantage - has now become old age.

Will he be back? "Yeah," he said curtly. Has he one more big Wimbledon left in him? "Yeah," he said again. Any thoughts of quitting? "Um, no," he snapped. "I would think about it if all of you are ninth best in the world and below quit with me. But there wouldn't be many of you left, would there?"

Unfortunately, Henman is no longer ninth in the world, having failed to defend either his semifinal place at the French Open or his quarterfinal here last year. The only way is down.

The champions of the past five years - Venus and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova - were all in action but in varying states of repair. Sharapova cruised past Sesil Karatancheva 6-0, 6-1 but the Misses Williams were in all sorts of bother.

Serena was struggling as much with her injured ankle as she was with Mara Santangelo, finally getting through to the third round 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

"I was feeling a little problem in my left leg in the beginning," she said. "It's just getting the feeling of getting used to it. It's a bone problem. Right now I'm working on playing through the pain and taking one match at a time. The radiologist report said it was a small fracture and you have to let it heal with time. In general, as long as I tape it, it's OK. But if it's cold, it gets a little strange feeling.

"When I came here, I practiced more than I had in four weeks. That was encouraging. I just think I'm fighting on adrenaline and I think tennis is 60 or 70 percent mental anyway. I feel I'm pretty well fit. I'm more fit than during the clay court season."

As for Venus, she was all at sea against the veteran Nicole Pratt. Pinging errors far and wide, she made a complete hash of the first set before cleaning up her act, cutting down the errors and finally getting the better of the Australian 7-5, 6-3.

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