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Weight of a nation on Henman
Updated: Friday July 06, 2001 2:56 AM
LONDON -- Tim Henman admitted to feeling as tight as a drum. But after banging out a quarterfinal victory over the conqueror of the Wimbledon king, the beat goes on for the British hero here at the All England Club. Henman survived a nerve-jangling four-setter against Roger Federer, inspired by a rabid British crowd baying for the blood of any opponent standing in the way of Tiger Tim and the nation's first men's singles champion since Fred Perry in 1936. Goran Ivanisevic will be next to face the euphoric wave of Henmania in Friday's semifinal on Centre Court. The home brigade (well, most of them anyway) hope the almost unbelievably resurgent Croatian, and that wicked left-handed serve of fire, will not bring "Timbledon" tumbling about their ears.
Henman's been in this position twice before in the last three years. Alas for Tim, a guy named Pete was on the other side of the net each time. Britain was left waiting for a first men's singles finalist here since Bunny Austin 63 years ago. But Sampras has already been removed from Henman's path this year by the obliging Federer. Talk about psychological lifts.
And you know that if Henman had been told pre-tournament that he would need to beat Goran to reach his first Wimbledon final, he'd have taken that notion and run several laps of honor with it around Centre Court. He's won all four of his previous matches against Ivanisevic and, though Goran's been in irresistible form so far this Wimbledon, Henman will take him in a heartbeat ahead of Andre Agassi or Patrick Rafter, the other two semifinal contestants. This is it. Chances don't come any bigger than this for Henman. He might claim that as the youngest of the guys in the final four, he has several more Holy Grail-searching adventures on the lovely lawns ahead of him. But then one thinks of the young guns like Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick and appreciates a sense of urgency might not be a bad idea after all. An ultimate Ivanisevic victory would also be a remarkable story, as indeed would a Rafter success in what's possibly his last Wimbledon. Agassi's been here, done that. A title win for him would be the least emotive tale, simply based on the fact he's experienced it all before. But a Henman triumph at Wimbledon would be the most momentous sports victory in Britain since England won the World Cup football finals on home soil in 1966. Expect anything from a national holiday to a knighthood to mark the occasion. Phil Jones is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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