Henman's goal to add substance to the hype
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Your support makes all the difference.Bucketing rain, stop-start action and a welter of speculation about British chances at Wimbledon. The grass court season arrived in typical fashion at the Stella Artois Championships here yesterday.
There were meagre pickings for partisan home fans, with the British wild cards Arvind Parmar and Jamie Delgado both losing. Parmar eventually succumbed 7-6, 6-3 to Marc Rosset of Switzerland in an oft-interrupted encounter. Delgado lasted slightly longer against Cecil Mamiit of the United States before going down 6-4, 7-6.
Neither Tim Henman nor Greg Rusedski were in action, both receiving byes to second-round ties that are scheduled for tomorrow. Absent too was Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, who beat Henman in the final here last year and will also, thanks to the rain, not play his first match until tomorrow. He is looking for a third straight title.
Another face who will hopefully be worth the wait will be the 15-year-old French prodigy, Richard Gasquet, winner of the French Open boys' title. He is scheduled to face South Africa's Neville Godwin in the first round today, with the winner playing Henman.
While the British No1 was not on court, he did make a brief appearance. Given the weather – and the less than spectacular results yesterday by his compatriots – it was appropriate that he used it to dampen expectations that this could finally be the year he succeeds at The All England Club.
"Many are saying it's inevitable," said the 27-year-old, three times a beaten semi-finalist at Wimbledon, in 1998, 1999 and last year to the eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic. "But it was probably only four months ago they were saying I was not able to play [at all], and now I'm guaranteed to be Wimbledon champion.
"I have always tried to let my tennis do the talking. Hopefully I can back up my results and get better results at Wimbledon than I have done before." Henman added that he thought there were 40 people who had a chance of winning last week's French Open – from which he made an early exit – but that only 10 people are realistically capable of winning Wimbledon.
"I would like to think I am at the top of that list," he said. "I think I know what I am capable of on grass. I have always tried to improve and if I improve on my previous years I have got to get to the final. And if you get to the final you may as well win it."
Among those who were given the chance of trying to do so yesterday were the five British men and six British women handed wild cards for Wimbledon. They included Delgado, Parmar, Barry Cowan – who memorably took Pete Sampras to five sets last year – and the upcoming teenager Alex Boganovic. The British women's challenge will be led by Lucie Ahl, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong.
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