Henman on hard shoulder
It was the same old story, except that on this occasion Tim Henman, who like Greg Rusedski failed to get beyond the last 32 of the US Open in New York for the third successive year, had a perfectly legitimate excuse.
It was clear from the start of the tournament that Henman's right shoulder would not hold up very long to the strain of five-set matches, not that he had any. In the final few games of his third-round match against Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, who beat him 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, Henman served at virtually half power and, just before receiving serve, he held his racket in his left hand and let his right arm swing loose as he attempted to ease the ache.
It was impossible not to feel sympathy, though whether Henman was sensible to risk further damage only time will tell. And time, at least as far as Britain's Davis Cup chances are concerned, is now at a premium.
Provided Henman and Rusedski, who lost in five sets against Pete Sampras, are fit, then Britain should win the home tie in Birmingham against Thailand on September 20-22 reasonably comfortably. But, if either is absent, and Henman's participation is now obviously in doubt, then Thailand, led by the highly gifted Paradorn Srichaphan, may spring a surprise and ruin Britain's hopes of staying in the elite world group next year.
Henman has little more than a fortnight to get matters right and will consult Britain's Davis Cup physio Mark Bender as soon as he gets back to London. "I've a lot of faith in him," said Henman, who first suffered inflammation of the shoulder during the Cincinnati tournament early last month and was then forced to pull out of the next event, in Indianapolis, after aggravating the injury. However, he admitted that playing in the Davis Cup would "be a risk".
He had an MRI scan that appeared to indicate there was no major damage of the sort suffered by Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic, who both needed surgery. But Henman remains uncertain as to the exact nature of the problem. "I was optimistic at the start. I was able to bluff my way through my first two matches but right now my shoulder is a pretty big concern."
Henman was not helped by the conditions. More heavy rain meant that Monday's programme did not get started until early evening and it was gone 10pm by the time his match against Chela, ranked world No24, began. "It made it so much slower and so much heavier but Chela played very, very well," said Henman, who must have known he was fighting a lost cause from the moment he was broken in his opening service game.
Obviously this was a different kind of disappointment for Henman, who before the US Open freely admitted that his previous performances in New York had been thoroughly disappointing. In his seven previous visits he had never progressed beyond the last 16 and he was particularly despondent last year when he lost with a wretched performance against Belgium's Xavier Malisse in the third round.
Henman's two main ambitions at the start of the year were to win the Wimbledon title and to qualify for the end-of-season Masters Series Cup, this time in Shanghai, which is restricted to the world's top eight players.
The memories of his defeat by Lleyton Hewitt, the world No1, in the semi-finals at Wimbledon remain painful but Henman's chances of making China in November are good, provided the shoulder injury clears up and does not recur. He is likely to remain in the world's top six at the end of the week and would normally pick up enough points in the European indoor season to guarantee his place in Shanghai.
Rusedski, whose match against Sampras spanned two days, laid the blame squarely at his own door for the 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 defeat, notably when he squandered a 5-3 lead in the first set on Sunday. There has never been much love lost between Rusedski and Sampras, the latter now holding a 9-1 head-to-head lead, and Rusedski made it plain that he believed Sampras's great days were all in the past. "He's still a good player, no question about it, but not a great player."
This much has been obvious to all but Sampras for the past two years, but for Rusedski to say it at this juncture sounded too much like sour grapes. More pertinently, Rusedski has now gone 18 grand slam events since finishing runner-up to Rafter here in 1997 without progressing beyond the fourth round and his post-match talk of still "winning a slam" rang hollow.
He will be 29 on Friday and the chances of any player winning a slam for the first time at this age are decidedly remote.