Murray meets Henman in Thai Open, Hewitt withdraws
Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:22 AM BST170

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Britons Andy Murray and Tim Henman will face each other for the third time in seven weeks in the first round of this week's $550,000 ATP Thailand Open, while Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has withdrawn due to injury.

Henman will be hoping to make it third time lucky in Bangkok on Tuesday when he takes on the fourth-seeded Scotsman, who knocked him out of both the Cincinnati and Toronto Masters events early last month.

Henman said he was relishing the early test against the in-form teenager, but conceded he would have to improve his game to progress to the next round.

"I was happy with the draw when I found out I was facing Andy," the Thai-language Siam Sport daily quoted Henman as saying.

"Every time we've met he's been in great form but if I want to progress I have to play a better game than I've been playing so far."

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has withdrawn from the competition and said he will take several weeks off to recover from a knee injury.

Second-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, in the hunt for his second career ATP tour title after winning the China Open last week, takes on France's Julien Benneteau, while top seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia faces Spain's Fernando Vincente.

Third seed James Blake of the United States goes against wild card entry Marin Cilic of Croatia, while Juan Carlos Ferrero (sixth) will take on one the winners of Monday's qualifying rounds.

Home favourite Paradorn Srichapahan (eighth) has a tough opener against Feliciano Lopez of Spain, who he has failed to get past on their three previous meetings.

Reuters

Sky Sports reported that Tim Henman has won that match over fellow Brit Andy Murray.

Thai star Paradorn Srichaphan was determined to win his match last night at the Thailand Open and didn’t disappoint.

TENNIS

THAI STARS through

Crowd favourites Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke played their way into the second round of the US$550,000 Thailand Open yesterday after comfortable victories over their rivals.

Wearing his favourite red shirt with the words "Love King" on the back, Paradorn overpowered Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-1 6-4, avenging three straight losses to the Spaniard.

"I played very prudently like I planned and had good control throughout the match. I made very few mistakes and should keep my first serve percentage as high as 60-70 per cent. I'm happy to finally beat him,'' said Paradorn, who always plays well at home in Thailand.

Earlier, red-hot Thai No 2 Danai was briefly tested by Swiss qualifier George Bastl before advancing with a convincing 6-3 6-0 victory for his first second round berth at the Thailand Open in four attempts. He displayed the formidable form that he produced to upend world No 14 Tommy Haas in the Davis Cup last week in Dusseldorf.

"I was under a bit of pressure because I was afraid I would disappoint the fans," he said. "At the same time I am quite confident after I beat Haas.

"If I can maintain at this level, I can catch up with the top 20 players,'' said the Thai No 2, who is ranking No 113 in the world by the ATP.

He will next have a rematch with seventh-seeded Robby Genepri, who eliminated him from the opening round last year.

"We play a similar game - that is stay at the baseline and try to destroy the momentum of one another," said Danai. "If he is in top form, he will be the favourite.

"But I will try not to feel the pressure and play like I did when I beat Haas,'' added Danai, who is in the doubles quarter-finals with his German partner Rainer Schuettler.

Paradorn, seeded eighth, went on court wearing a yellow polo shirt he bought on his way to the stadium, but changed into a red shirt before play started.

"I've seen everybody wearing yellow shirts, so I wanted to have one. I also have the red shirt with the words "Love King" on it to show my respect for His Majesty the King,'' said Paradorn, who will play wild card entrant Mikhail Ledovskikh of Switzerland today.

"I've never seen him before but he should have seen my game before. I have been playing well since the US Open because I have worked hard on my fitness,'' added Paradorn, who is the new Brand Ambassador for the Boonrawd Brewery. The company will donate Bt250 to an Aids foundation for each ace he serves.

After losing Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, the tournament also bid an early farewell to last year's runner-up Andy Murray, who was given a lesson by Tim Henman in a one-sided match that ended 6-4 6-2.

Murray, who looked below par after arriving on Monday from the Davis Cup tie against Ukraine last weekend, lost his temper during the final stages of the second set, yelling at people in the stands for using cameras with flashes.

But he calmed down and later learned some muay Thai tricks from 1996 Olympic Games boxing medallist Somluck Khamsing.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation

I'M TOO THAI-RED
Murray crashes out to Henman
By Ted Tracey

ANDY MURRAY last night admitted that he was too knackered to continue his hoodoo over Tim Henman.

The Scot crashed 6-4 6-2 to his fellow Brit in the Thailand Open first round after winning all three of their previous meetings.

It was his most disappointing defeat since he linked up with coach Brad Gilbert.

Murray felt the strain of having played 22 matches since Wimbledon as well as three Davis Cup ties.

He also had a gruelling journey from Ukraine and the difficulty of adjusting from a clay court to an indoor hard court.

The task proved to be just too much for the 19-year-old.

He said: "It was tough for me to get here and obviously I didn't play my best tennis but I wasn't expecting to. Maybe it was a match too many.

"Tim definitely played well but I don't feel I played my best, my bread and butter that has worked against him the last couple of times.

"My passing shots weren't as good and I didn't win many break points.

"But it's a good learning experience for me. These are the sort of things that are great for you to learn when you're my age because it's definitely not worth going out and not being able to play your best tennis.

"I want to turn up at tournaments and be able to peak and feel in good condition. It's not good for your body to change surfaces and take long flights so I'll definitely learn from this."

After dropping his serve to go down 3-2, and then hitting his first double fault to concede his serve again at 4-2, the match was always going to be an uphill struggle.

But Murray, dubbed the most sport's exciting young player after beating world No.1 Roger Federer in Toronto last month, almost pulled himself out of trouble.

He foiled Henman when he served for the set at 5-2 and at 5-4 held five break points before Henman survived the challenge and closed out the set on his fourth set point.

Murray's game lacked passion and with a few mumbles to himself and a couple of complaints about courtside photographers, his shoulders slumped.

The second set and the match slipped from Murray's grasp after Henman belted a tremendous winner down the line to break for 1-0.

Murray then received a warning for slamming the ball in frustration against the side of the court and was lucky not to receive a further warning in the next game when he cracked his racket.

When he double-faulted a second time to fall behind 3-0 the match was all but over.

Henman conceded that winning the opening set played an important part in his victory. He said: "That end to the first set was always going to be crucial and I played some really good points at the right time.

"Probably in the matches that Andy and I played previously he won a bigger percentage of those points.

"But today I was able to win them and my game got better and better. I started to dominate in the early part of the second set and made life much easier for myself."

Henman had challenged well from the start, slicing his backhand from the baseline, chipping and charging and mixing in a little serve and volley to keep Murray guessing.

He served well, too, hitting seven aces, the last of which set up match point and he clinched the point with a gentle touch volley.

There was some consolation for Murray in the doubles, when he teamed with brother Jamie and saved a match point before beating Canada's Frank Dancevic and American Robby Ginepri 3-6 7-6 6-0.

Scottish No.5 David Brewer lost 6-2 6-3 to German top seed Simon Stadler yesterday in the first round of the LTA $15,000 event in Nottingham.

Paisley's Alan Mackin lost 6-3 7-6 to No.6 seed Jerome Haehnel from France in the Isere Open challenger second round in Grenoble, France.

Daily Record