Henman books semifinal berth

COPENHAGEN, FEB. 17. Top seed Tim Henman produced some of his best form as he eliminated the potentially difficult Bohdan Ulihrach 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Copenhagen Open semifinals on Friday.

The only disappointing moment for Henman came early on when he broke his Czech opponent and lost the advantage immediately and much of the first set turned into a tense battle.

But in the eighth game, Ulihrach, a finalist in Doha last month, uncharacteristically dropped serve at love and Henman became a transformed player.

After serving out the set, Henman broke again immediately and for the rest of the contest played with such skill and tactical variety in his service games that he did not drop a point in the second set.

Henman rarely served and volleyed, but came forward via different routes, sometimes with short angled balls and sometimes with heavily struck deep ones. He occasionally tried to drag Ulihrach forward too, in order to pass him.

``You know with him that he has a lot of feel and power from the baseline and I knew I didn't want to rally with him from there,'' explained Henman. ``And I realised all through that he had plenty of ammunition and I was eager to finish the job.''

Henman plays left-hander Jan Siemerink in the semifinals. The Dutchman missed four consecutive match points in the second set but recovered in the decider to beat American Cecil Mamiit 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2.

Defending champion and fourth seed Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden outplayed German Lars Burgsmuller 6-2, 6-4 and Russian Mikhail Youzhny survived a trial of brinkmanship against Swede Magnus Gustafsson before winning his quarterfinal 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2).

Vinciguerra, the only player not to have dropped a set all week, might well have won his match more easily. He dominated the first set, achieving an early break, hustling Burgsmuller with his scuttling court coverage, and hitting hard-to-read forehands even from wide on the backhand side.

The 19-year-old also combined just about the largest pair of shorts on the tour with one of the bigger first serves. Yet, after making an early break in the second set, Vinciguerra casually dropped his serve.

However, the Swede who lives only half an hour away in Malmo but prefers to stay in Copenhagen, looked completely at home. The pace of the court gave him time to wind up his deceptive topspins and he was usually able to dictate the pattern of the rallies.

Vinciguerra made the decisive thrust at 4-4 in the second set. He soon had Burgsmuller at 0-40, when the mounting pressure on the second serve showed through with a double fault. The Swede then wasted no time serving out for the match. Siemerink, a left- handed serve-and-volley specialist who has won two of his four titles indoors, was the first into the semifinals.

The former world top-20 player, who last year dropped out of the top-100 for the first time in a decade, should have won comfortably.

But after taking a lead of a set and a break of serve, and then another of 6-2 in the tie-break, the Dutchman conspired to lose four match points.

lThe results: Tim Henman bt Bohdan Ulihrach 6-3, 6-4; Jan Siemerink bt Cecil Mamiit 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2; Andreas Vinciguerra bt Lars Burgsmuller 6-2, 6-4; Mikhail Youzhny bt Magnus Gustafsson 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2).

- Reuters

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