Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 29 June 2007 /

Tim Henman has insisted he will be back at Wimbledon next year, despite a third consecutive second-round exit at SW19.

There had been speculation mounting that the British number two could call it a day following his thrilling five set defeat to Spain's Feliciano Lopez on Thursday, 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 2-6 6-1.

Henman started the day at one game all following Wednesday's rain delays and was the 1.68 favourite with the Betfair punters to reach the third round.

But after losing the first two sets on tie-breaks, the Briton drifted out to 13. Lopez then broke Henman and went 2-0 up in the third set, which led to the Spaniard being on offer at 1.04 and Henman available at 23.

But that was the start of the fight back and the 32-year-old, with the help of the home crowd, battled his way back to win the third set - at which point he was trading at 2.9.

Henman, playing in his 14th Wimbledon, then came into 1.45 after comfortably claiming the fourth set and seemingly having the momentum.

But Lopez found another gear in the fifth and eventually saw off the home challenge for another year, in a match which saw over £16.3m matched on Betfair.
When asked if he would be back at the All England Club, Henman said: "Absolutely.
"The way I played is not too far away from breaking through and getting to the second week, and that was probably my objective."
The 25-year-old Lopez will now play France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in round three, with the Spaniard trading at 2.5 to progress while Tsonga can be backed at 1.64.

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