Henman Cruises into Quarterfinals
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© Getty ImagesTim Henman
Britain’s Tim Henman moved through to the quarterfinals of the Stella Artois Championships for the seventh time in his career after recording a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut on Thursday.
Henman, a three-time runner-up at The Queen’s Club, delivered his fifth ace of the match to reach the last eight in just 1 hour, 15 minutes.
“It's been good,” said Henman of his week so far. “Obviously, the results are the important factor. To be playing as well as I have and to be feeling as comfortable out on the court is fantastic. I just want to keep building from it and see how much I can take out of this week. But it does give me a lot of confidence.”
The British No. 3, who is unseeded here for the first time in 10 years, looked confident from the start of his first ever meeting against Mahut, who won the Junior Wimbledon title in 2000. The only blot on Henman’s copybook came when he was serving for the match at 5-2 in the second set, when Henman faced his first breakpoint since his opening match against Andre Agassi.
Henman put things right two games later, holding to love to reach his third quarterfinal of the year (Zagreb, Dubai). And the Briton was delighted with the way he is feeling on court.
A lot of that is obviously based around the way I've been serving,” said Henman. “I've been very consistent and aggressive with the way that I've served. I haven't really got behind in too many games and I feel like I'm getting on to my opponent's serve pretty early. So that's a good combination on any surface, but I think if you can get in the lead on grass, it's still a good position to play from.”
He will next face Dmitry Tursunov, the American based Russian who has won all three of their previous meetings. Tursunov won a fifth-set battle at Wimbledon last year, as well as defeating the Briton at this year’s Australian Open and two weeks ago at the French Open.
Tursunov booked his place in the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Yeu-Tzuoo Wang.
“It's obviously an interesting story for you guys (the media), but it doesn't really bother me because I'll do as good a job as I can about playing the way I have been and concentrating on my performance,” said Henman of the match-up. “If I go out and play the way I have been, I think I've got a good chance of beating him. If I play like that and I lose, then I'll shake his hand and say, ‘Too good.’ But I do feel very confident about the way things have been going.”