Tim Henman was still smiling despite his shock second-round exit at the Queen’s Club ATP event on Wednesday after he announced he is going to be a father for the second time.
The 29-year-old British number one, who was knocked out of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) by Slovakia’s Karol Beck, said that he and his wife, Lucy, are expecting their second child in December.
The couple already have an 18-month-old daughter, Rosie.
”It’s great timing — the pressure was on,” said the fourth seed, whose Wimbledon planning was left in tatters by his defeat to Beck.
The loss was only his second in 11 appearances in an opening round at the traditional Wimbledon warm-up tournament.
But the British number one, who surprisingly reached the semifinals of the French Open last week, refused to let the narrow loss to Beck colour his grass-court optimism.
”I would have liked to have won more matches here,” said the world number five.
”I’m disappointed right now, but I’m sure that a week from Monday [the start of Wimbledon] I’ll be raring to go.”
Henman said that the defeat was a matter of a point here and there.
”I’ve been playing very well, but he was better on the day. I won’t let the fact that I didn’t win one more point dictate how I’m feeling about my overall performance. I need to work on my transition to the grass, and I’ll absolutely be doing that over the next 10 days.”
Ironically, Henman’s defeat came on the day when unheralded countrymen Ian Flanagan and Jonathan Marray moved into third round of the grasscourt event.
Flanagan — the world 866 who beat last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, Mark Philippoussis, in the first round — enjoyed another good day with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win over Romania’s Victor Hanescu.
He next plays Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean while Marray, who knocked out comptriot Jamie Delgado 6-4, 6-3, now faces triple Queen’s champion and 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt. — Sapa-AFP