Henman, Agassi Into Quarters

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Britain's Tim Henman passed another difficult test en route to the quarterfinals of the Stella Artois Championships with a three-set victory over Frenchman Cyril Saulnier.

Henman, the No. 7 seed who has reached three finals in the last four years at The Queen's Club, recovered from the loss of the first set to win 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to set up a meeting with another Frenchman, Anthony Dupuis.

"In the context of the year, matches are what I'm looking for," said Henman. "I haven't had many wins so it's good to come through difficult situations."

The 28-year-old Henman did not get off to a good start, losing his opening service game to trail 2-0. But the Briton hit straight back and led 4-2 with three more break points before Saulnier held and got back on level terms. In the tie-break, Henman clawed his way back from 0-5 down to level at 5-5 only to serve his third double fault at a crucial moment.

"The first set was pretty frustrating because I was too inconsistent," said Henman. "I dropped my serve from 30-0 which isn't the best way to start, but then I played some really good tennis and was 4-2, 0-40 up. Those are the kind of opportunities you have to take. Realistically you're looking at winning that match 6-4, 6-2 or something like that, and the next thing I'm making life difficult for myself.

"After losing the first set, I just said to myself: 'Don't over try things.' Then I started to relax a bit and played much better in the second set."

Although Saulnier took the opening set, Henman found his game and began to take control of the match. Having levelled the match at one set all, Henman had to save break points at 2-2 in the third before racing away to victory.

Looking ahead to his next match, Henman added: "Dupuis plays very similar to Saulnier. He's a shot maker, likes to give the ball a crack. I don't think he will serve and volley a great deal, but he's come through some seriously tight matches against Bogdanovic and Ancic. I'm looking forward to it."

Shadows

Meanwhile, with the shadows of The Queen's Club making their way across Centre Court just after 7:30 pm, Andre Agassi wasted little time in booking his place in the last eight with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Richard Krajicek. Agassi, the second seed, took the first 12 points of the match and went on to book his spot against Xavier Malisse with victory in 48 minutes.

"It's never easy when you're hanging around all day waiting to get on," said Agassi. "But two guys have to deal with it so you have to handle the situation as well as possible. I had to be sharp right from the get-go and it feels good to have done that against a guy like Richard. I didn't expect him to only hold serve a couple of times, but you never know what's going to happen. I was getting on his second serve pretty good and it was important to get that early lead in the second set.

"Just because it's getting late doesn't necessarily mean you're trying to finish the points quicker. You're trying to play the right shot all the time and hopefully that gets you through the finish line. Obviously there's added benefits if it's getting late, but it's not something you think about."

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