Tennis: Henman joins the game's elite the top 10

Tennis: Two Britons in the world top 10 for the first time as season's final Grand Slam approaches

TIM HENMAN yesterday became the 100th player to make it into the world's top 10 since rankings were introduced 25 years ago.

British tennis has now reached the dizzy and, until recently, undreamed of heights of having two players ranked in the world top 10 - the first time that has happened since the Association of Tennis Professionals started ranking in 1973.

Greg Rusedski, the first Briton to reach single figures, keeps his place in the elite, dropping one place to No 7, despite not having played since an ankle injury forced him out of Wimbledon.

Henman, whose elevation from 11th to 10th came despite his first-round defeat by Thomas Muster in Cincinnati last week, said: "It's all a bit different from back in February when I had four defeats, and people said I should change my coach.

"There has never been any chance of that happening. I have been with David Felgate for six years and benefited from the continuity."

Both Britons are in action this week in warm-up tournaments for the US Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, which begins in two weeks on 31 August. Henman, 23, plays at New Haven, Connecticut, while Rusedski, 24, makes his comeback in Indianapolis.

Rusedski, particularly, is approaching a crucial time of the year, as he will need to at least match his performance in reaching the US Open final last year - where he lost to Pat Rafter - if he is not to lose vital rankings points and drop out of the top 10. A bad performance at Flushing Meadow could see him slip as low as 15.

Henman, meanwhile, with fewer points to defend - he was a second-round casualty at the US Open last year - and having a much better year so far, is rapidly closing on his Canadian-born rival. Indeed Henman is only 545 points behind and in the race to be one of the eight qualifiers for the year-ending ATP Tour Championships in Hanover, Henman is currently 11th while Rusedski is not even in the top 15.

Henman, from Oxford, is seeded six in New Haven and has a bye in the first round. He will face one of two Italians, Diego Nargiso or Vicenzo Santopadre, in the second. He appears to have chosen the much tougher tournament as the top two seeds are Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter, who contested Sunday's final in Cincinnati. Rafter, the US Open champion, won that meeting 1-6, 7-6, 6-4, sealing the match with an ace his opponent clearly thought was out. Sampras, who would have regained the world No 1 ranking had he won, was not slow in letting the umpire know he was unhappy with the call.

Rusedski's first opponent in Indianapolis, where he is seeded three behind Marcelo Rios and Carlos Moya, is either the Swede, Magnus Larsson, a former top tenner, or Sebastien Grosjean, of France. The tournament also features Andre Agassi, whose recent rejuvenation has taken him from a lowly 141 a year ago to No 8 in the world this week.

Rusedski has been out of the game for eight weeks since the ankle he badly twisted at Queen's forced him to withdraw from his first-round match against Mark Draper at Wimbledon. This gives him only this week and next, at the Hamlet Cup in Long Island, to get fit for the US Open.

THE TOP TEN

1 Marcelo Rios (Chile)

2 Pete Sampras (US)

3 Pat Rafter (Aus)

4 Petr Korda (Cz Rep)

5 Carlos Moya (Sp)

6 Richard Krajicek (Neth)

7 Greg Rusedski (GB)

8 Andre Agassi (US)

9 Jonas Bjorkman (Swe)

10 Tim Henman (GB)