TIM HENMAN, the British No 1 who is seeking his first ATP title in 19 months, weathered two rain delays to beat Paradorn Srichaphan, the No3 seed from Thailand, 7-6, 7-5 yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Washington Classic. Henman beat the world No 11 for the fifth time in six meetings and will now play either Mardy Fish or Andy Roddick, the No 2 seed.
Under dark skies and in humid conditions, Henman was serving at 6-5 in the first-set tie-break when a shower halted the match for 21 minutes. “I’ve had my fair share of rain delays and had some difficult ones, but that wasn’t easy to stop at that stage,” Henman said. “There are lots of thoughts you go through when you have 15 minutes to think about one serve for set point. Am I going to serve up the T, serve wide, serve and volley?” When play resumed, Henman sent down a mild second serve, but Srichaphan swatted his forehand return wide. “I was grateful he missed that,” Henman said. “It would have been tough to have lost that set after playing so well.”
Srichaphan, who lost to James Blake in last year’s final and to Roddick in last week’s ATP final in Indianapolis, admitted that he was thrown by the delay. “It was enough to stop my rhythm,” he said. “He came back and played great.”
“It’s great to get through a match like that,” Henman said. “To beat Srichaphan, who is near the top ten, is another big step.”