Wimbledon Has Come Two-and-a-half Weeks Early

British paper declares 'Bravo Timbo'
Does Coria have the 'hand of God?

By Eleanor Preston
Special to tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Henman has handled the red clay.

FROM ROLAND GARROS – Two words adorned the front page of the Sun – Britain's biggest selling daily newspaper on Tuesday morning – "Bravo Timbo."

The Timbo in question is a certain British serve-and-volleyer who has stunned his country, not to mention the rest of the world, by making the semifinals of Roland Garros. Henman (for it is he) plays Guillermo Coria on Friday in a match that will have millions of households across Britain in a state of high anxiety.

Henman's clinical but otherwise rather mundane straight sets win over Juan Ignacio Chela on a damp Monday evening probably barely registered with most of the tennis-watching world, given that it came on a day where both Williams sisters and tournament darling Amelie Mauresmo were beaten.

Not for the first time though, the island across the channel was in a world of its own. Henman made the front of most newspapers in his home country and was the topic de jour of magazine shows and news programs across all channels. It was as though Wimbledon had come two-and-a-half-weeks early.

NEW STUBBLE GROWS ON BOYISH FACE
The British public is used to seeing Henman do this sort of thing at SW19, where he has reached four semifinals and three quarterfinals in eight years. There it's less surprising to see him swashbuckling his way towards the net, but he had never previously got beyond the third round in Paris. Henman usually spends this week alternating between the golf course and the beautifully manicured practice courts at Queens, so it's something of a surprise to still see him around the player lounge, especially sporting a somewhat un-Henmanlike growth of stubble. He hasn't shaved thus far through the tournament and has joked, with characteristic self-deprecation, that he actually gave up shaving at the start of the clay court season and it's only now finally starting to show through.

Henman continued presence in the tournament has been so surprising that the poor journalist from the Sun, who normally makes only a fleeting visit to Paris each year to cover the country's star player before returning home, has had to rebook his hotel night after night. He has now stayed in five different rooms in various hostelries around the Porte d'Auteil and is having to endure much ribbing from his colleagues as he traipses around Paris, suitcase in tow.

Now the staff at Roland Garros have been besieged by requests for credentials from media outlets in the UK, all desperate to grab onto the coat-tails of the Henman success story.

The BBC has been rapidly clearing its schedules to include Henman's matches. It drafted in John McEnroe (at who knows what cost) as an analyst for the Briton's match against Chela and can anticipate huge tea-time audiences for his semi-final with Coria.

Tennis fans views this as a match between a serve-volleyer and a man who has won 36 of his last 37 matches on clay, but from the news media's point of view, Coria's nationality makes the match-up even more fascinating. It pits Britain against Argentina, two old enemies in sport and beyond.

IN WAR AND FOOTBALL
Let's leave aside the 1982 Falklands (or Malvinas) War between the two countries. Much of the rivalry stems from football and specifically a moment during the '86 World Cup when Argentine football genius Diego Maradona scored a goal with his hand, which for those of you uninitiated with the rules, is most certainly not allowed. Afterwards he claimed it was the "hand of God", which did not go down well in Britain.

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA

The British top player takes on Argentine's best in the semifinals.

The England football captain and all-round British sporting deity David Beckham got a measure of revenge by scoring against Argentina during the '02 World Cup, but nothing will ever expunge the memory of Maradona's hand in British minds.

Henman will be charged with gaining revenge, despite the fact that Coria was barely four years old, and Henman not yet 12, when Maradona stuck his hand out and served that ball into the goal. British memories are long for such injustices but let's hope they also remember Henman's achievements for years to come. He is the first British man since 1963 to make the last four at Roland Garros and while he has made the most of a favorable draw, his passage has been far from easy - he twice had to come from two sets down on a surface which saps the strength from the legs like no other.

"Hurricane Henman" the British Daily Mail called it. The storm may blow itself out against a superior clay courter like Coria, it is worthy of all the fuss back home.

Bravo Timbo indeed.