Tennis: Rusedski's painful victory

The final of the national championships that British tennis wanted was thrown into doubt yesterday when Greg Rusedski injured his back just over halfway through a surprisingly testing three-set semi-final against the unseeded Paul Robinson. Rusedski is due to play Tim Henman this afternoon in a match that brings together the two heavyweights of the domestic game, but he is understandably giving priority to his physical wellbeing over the hopes of the Telford organisers and public.

The prospect of Henman and Rusedski meeting in a repeat of the 1995 final prompted the sale of all 2,200 tickets for this year's climax as long as a fortnight ago. But whether the match goes ahead or not depends on a decision Rusedski was delaying until this morning, after sending for his private physiotherapist, Reza Dandesmand, from the Harbour Club in Chelsea, last night. "He knows my body very well," Rusedski said.

"I'd be very surprised if he didn't play," said Henman after his straight- sets win over Chris Wilkinson. And although Rusedski needed lengthy treatment at the courtside and spent subsequent changeovers lying flat on his back, he played no worse after the injury than he had before. He had hit 13 aces up to that point, but he wasn't prevented from hitting 11 more.

The problem occurred when Rusedski was serving at 5-5 in the second set, having sneaked through the first without looking convincing. At 30-all he twisted in going for a forehand volley, and returned gingerly to the baseline while holding his lower back. "The courts are hard and I got a little kink in it," Rusedski explained. "I have had spasms before but this felt different."

After losing the game, Rusedski called for the tournament physiotherapist, John Matthews, who gave him massage and fitted a support to his back during a delay that lasted 10 minutes. That was hard on the increasingly restless Robinson, who promptly lost his own serve to allow the set to go to a tie-break, but he recovered to win it after saving three match points.

Rusedski said he had thought about defaulting at that stage, and he looked completely out of it early in the third set. But his back loosened up and he eventually overcame his spirited opponent 7-5 6-7 6-3, in 2 hours 16 minutes. "I think I'm mentally stronger than I was," Rusedski said. "Maybe in the past I wouldn't have carried on."

The opportunity to meet Henman on as big an occasion as this is not one that Rusedski will want to forgo. He has defeats to make up for in both their previous matches - last year's final, in which Rusedski won the first set 6-1 and was a break up in the second, and in Ostrava last month when Henman won a much tighter encounter, 7-6 7-5. "I think it's important I start winning matches against him," Rusedski said. "I have to think of my health, but obviously I'd like to play."

Fully fit or not, Rusedski will surely need to raise his game above the level he managed against Robinson, whose power and touch made nonsense of his world ranking of 691.

The 22-year-old from Northampton took up tennis full-time only in July, when he returned to Britain after four years studying finance at Texas Christian University. "Virginia Wade came over as a guest speaker once, and she told me I should go for it," Robinson said.

A 6ft 2in left-hander, he took the Rusedski serve admirably early, and frequently out- rallied him by inspired use of cross-court passing shots on both flanks. But while Rusedski's backhand was particularly poor, his experience told, and Robinson let himself down by serving badly on big points. Double-faults cost him the chance of both winning the first set and staying in it. The third set turned on a loose game by Robinson when he was serving at 1- 1. But he did amazingly well to push so hard a player ranked 643 places above him, and he ought to go a lot further.

The second semi-final was much less eventful. Wilkinson, ranked 178 in the world to his opponent's 27, played some tidy tennis, but Henman's weightier and more searching shots enabled him to come through 6-4 6-3 in 67 minutes. "I was pretty motivated," Henman said. "I'd had some awkward matches against him before but today I felt I could dominate."

A new national women's champion was crowned in the 21-year-old Julie Pullin of Leicester, who brought Claire Taylor's fine run at the championships to an end in a disappointingly one-sided final, 6-3 6-0.