Tennis: Henman's serve costs him victory

TIM HENMAN'S flying start to the New Year was brought to a shuddering halt yesterday when he was beaten in three sets by the German qualifier Rainer Schuttler in the final of the Qatar Open.

Henman had to dig deep to stay in the match. He found himself facing an uphill battle after losing the opening set 6-4. But he rallied to take the second set 7-5, clinching it when Schuttler served his first double fault of the match.

Schuttler, the world No 111, quickly demonstrated that he would make Henman fight all the way when he broke the Briton's serve in the opening game of the third set. Henman was then broken again in the fifth game, this time to love. The German held his own serve before breaking Henman for the third time to wrap up victory.

It was Schuttler's first appearance in an ATP Tour final, while Henman was chasing his fifth title. But there was no way back for the top seed and British No 1 as he went on to lose 6-1.

The second seed, Thomas Enqvist, of Sweden, beat the defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, to win the Adelaide men's hardcourt tournament yesterday. Enqvist, the world No 22, overcame a slow start to take the title 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

The Swede was thrilled with the win, especially after having missed three months last year with a foot injury. "It's very important for my confidence to feel I can play good tennis and win tournaments again," Enqvist said.

Hewitt, 17, was the lowest-ranked singles victor in ATP history when he won in Adelaide last year while ranked 550th in the world, but was unable to defend his title this time.

He started strongly in the intense heat at the Memorial Drive courts, breaking Enqvist's serve in the fifth game with the Swede squandering a number of chances. But Enqvist came back strongly, moving better across the court and firing up his big serve. He levelled the match at one set- all with an ace and, as the courtside temperature moved close to 40C, Enqvist maintained control and broke Hewitt's serve early to take his 14th career title.

"In the first set I made a lot of mistakes, but in the second and third I moved a little bit better to the ball and played more aggressively," Enqvist said.

The No 2 seed had a smooth path to the finals after losing the first set of his opening match against Australia's Mark Woodforde, but said yesterday's heat and wind had tested both players. "They were tough conditions. I think both Lleyton and I played better tennis through the week than we did in the final," he said.

A disappointed Hewitt, who had beaten Australia's Jason Stoltenberg and the American Andre Agassi on the way to last year's surprise victory, said the Swede's serve was simply too strong. "I rarely got too many easy points off his service game, I think that was the big difference," Hewitt said.

The former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez beat Rachel McQuillan of Australia to advance to the second round of the Sydney International tournament. Martinez proved too strong for McQuillan, winning 6-0, 6-3 on a quiet opening day at the White City courts. The Australian teenager Alicia Molik beat the world No 16 Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-3, 6-4 in another first-round match. The tournament, which features both men's and women's draws, is a warm-up event to the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on 18 January.

Molik, aged 17 and ranked 172 in the world, made the most of her wild- card entry to beat Zvereva in just 62 minutes. The win earned her a second- round meeting with world No 2 Martina Hingis, who had a first-round bye.