Henman Comes Back from the Brink

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Local favourite Tim Henman had the British crowd on the edge of their seats as he had to save a match point against Italy's Davide Sanguinetti before moving through to the third round of the Stella Artois Championships.

The No. 7 seed, a runner-up at The Queen's Club in three of the last four years, came back from the brink of defeat to win 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) much to the delight of the packed Centre Court crowd.

"It was never in doubt, was it?" asked Henman with a smile. "Once I saved that match point I felt that I had the momentum going into the tie-break. I wanted to get off to a good start, and I established a good lead and tried my best to hang onto that. It's not the best match I've ever played, but it's important to come through."

Henman, who has been plagued by injuries for most of the year, has played just nine tournaments so far - four of them on his least favourite surface, clay. But the 28-year-old from Oxford was delighted to get back to home soil.

"The atmosphere was great and the support is always good," said Henman. "It's great to be back. There was a split second when I thought Nottingham was going to be an option, but I wanted to hang around in this tournament for a bit longer and fortunately I was able to do that. Certainly he was making life very difficult for me, but the most important thing is that I'm coming back on Thursday."

Form

Henman started the match by breaking Sanguinetti's serve in the opening game, but was broken straight back as the Italian went on take the first set in 36 minutes. But the Briton found his form to take the second by the same score and opened up a 4-2 lead in the deciding set.

Sanguinetti, who won two titles in 2002 in Milan and Delray Beach, broke back and held a match point on Henman's serve at 5-6, but his mis-hit groundstroke fell wide and Henman took full advantage in the tie-break.

"He's not the most orthodox player out there, but he's very difficult to play against," said Henman of Sanguinetti. "His backhand really is a world-class shot. His forehand doesn't look the prettiest, but it's very effective. It's not the easiest of styles to play against."

He added: "I have felt that over the last month my game has been getting a lot better. I can serve better than I did today, and if I can do that then there's no reason why I can't get to the final here again, and maybe go one better."

First Win

Meanwhile, Alex Bogdanovic put the disappointment of losing in the LTA Wimbledon qualifying competition behind him to defeat Arvind Parmar in an all-British clash on Court 1. Last year's Stella Artois Junior champion came through 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(2) to win his first match on the ATP circuit.

"It was a really tough match today," said Bogdanovic. "We both know each other very well and it's also the first round, so it's very difficult and we were very tight to start with. We had some great points out there. I tried to focus and loosen up on the nerves. I was very nervous last year so I'm really proud to have won the first round.

"I did really well last week in Surbiton and it feels great. I've played a lot of tennis recently and did a lot of interviews last week, but I just told myself to focus and do the same things and it will be alright."

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