Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 08 February 2007 /

Tim Henman's comeback from a knee injury has been put on hold after he pulled out of next week's Open 13 in Marseille.

The British number two has been out of action since appearing in the south of France in October, meaning he missed the Australian Open last month.

The 32-year-old had hoped to return next week but has decided to withdraw from the Marseille event, although he insists it is a precautionary measure and intends to return at the Rotterdam Open, which gets underway on February 19.

'Tiger Tim' told his official website: "My priority now is to be fully fit before I compete again.

"The good news is that my knee is now a lot better than it was before.
"I feel confident if there are no major setbacks then I'll be ready for Rotterdam."
The Oxford-born star added: "Unfortunately, I've been forced to delay my return to competition despite a vast improvement.

"I was hoping to play in the Open 13 in Marseille but I've decided to pull out.
"I've been practising this week and it's a case of so far so good, but I just didn't want to rush back on to the court before I've had the chance to really push it in practice.
"It's healing really well and I haven't felt any twinges so far, but I haven't been able to train on it as much as I would have wanted."

Betfair punters will be keeping a close eye on Henman's availability when the Rotterdam Open market opens, although he is unlikely to feature as one of the tournament's frontrunners on the hard-court surface.

If the Brit is fully fit, punters will be hoping he can fare better than in 1999, 2000 and 2002 when he lost in the final to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Cedric Pioline and Nicolas Escudé respectively.

Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic won the Netherlands tournament last year, beating Christophe Rochus 6-0 6-3, and will be one to watch as a tournament protagonist.

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