RAFAEL NADAL’S serving shoulder is hurting, Gael Monfils quits with a bad back — what is it about these young bucks and their brutalised bodies? Tim Henman is not in the spring chicken phase but there is abundant life in the 31-year-old limbs and, to the tournament’s delight, a place in the semi-finals of the Stella Artois Championships for the fifth time in 13 years continuous service.
It is a conundrum of some depth that Henman has won 11 events in his career and none have come on the surface where most would consider he is, in today’s order, without peer in terms of court craft. Nine on hard courts, two on carpet, the semi-final of a grand slam and a couple of doubles titles on clay but the grass, on which he learnt the rudiments of a game that challenged the theory of British ineptitude, did not serve him as well as he served it.
Even more strange is that the turf now plays more like a hard court than the grass of old. The late-evening talk at Queen’s Club — when the members have stopped lunging at each other’s throats over the legality of its purchase from the LTA — has been of marathon matches, clubbing rallies, deadened surfaces, even deader tennis balls and reduced racket tensions.
All should play into the hands of Henman’s opponents and certainly the one he faced yesterday, Dmitry Tursunov, who has a game that leaves burn marks on the most durable courts.
Tursunov had an unblemished record against Henman in three matches, last year’s Wimbledon, this year’s Australian Open and the French Open two weeks ago, all of which were marked by his apparent dislike of anything soft, yellow and furry.
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That particular run was brought to an end with a 6-3, 7-6 victory which, if not life changing, had the effect of removing a monkey from the once stricken Henman back. It is the first time he has reached this stage of a tournament since the 2004 US Open.
“I tend to start worrying when I’ve lost to someone eight times in a row,” he said, thankful no doubt that he ended Lleyton Hewitt’s 8-0 sequence against him in the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida in March which sets up today’s semi-final between the pair very nicely.
But Henman must have been a touch wary, more so when he burst into a 3-0 lead in the first set against Tursunov and it was clear the Russian did not take too kindly to being left spreadeagled on the grass by a wrong-footing pass.
Hence, it was three-all in the flash of a few lavish forehands, only for Henman to break in the seventh game as if the forehands of the previous game had been a trick of the light. He took the first set a couple of games later during which an imperious cross-court flick forced Tursunov to switch racket from right to left hand in a forlorn attempt to intercept. On set point, thinking he had struck a ball long, he was trudging back to the chair as Henman’s backhand sailed past him. Hmmmm.
There followed a trail of service breaks, including six in seven games, further indication that grass ain’t what it used to be. Tursunov had a point for the second set at 5-4 but double-faulted for the third time and then let out a laugh that was more blood-curdling than sinister. He lost the game by lunging at a smash that took the tape and landed in the tramlines.
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Henman played a majestic tie-break to secure the match.
When Hewitt could take only two of 16 break points against Nadal, it might have been assumed that the French Open champion would continue his assault on grass but the three-times Stella champion — the three years before Andy Roddick took control — stuck at his task and midway through the second set, Nadal’s serving shoulder began to hurt.
Rather than risk worsening the injury, the top seed chose to stop and flew home to Majorca last night and an appointment with his doctor. “I see you at Wimbledon,” he said as he left the press room and one can only hope that we will, for the tournament will be much the poorer without him.