Henin eliminated, Henman survives

Justine Henin-Hardenne's fragile hopes of winning the only grand slam missing from her collection were dashed yesterday when she lost in the first round at Wimbledon.

Tim Henman, once again shouldering a nation's dreams for a first British men's champion in 69 years, survived.

But only just. The 30-year-old's toothless display left the Centre Court crowd on the edge of its seats before he finally overcame obscure Finn Jarkko Nieminen 3-6 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-2.

"It was ordinary at best," was Henman's candid verdict. "I was struggling with my form the whole match, that was the picture really... but you've got to keep fighting.

"Fight with what you've got on the day. I am proud of the way I managed to do that. You can lose this tournament on the first day but you can't win it."

French Open champion Henin-Hardenne learnt the harsh reality of Henman's maxim the tough way.

She had no answer to Greek Eleni Daniilidou's weight of shot and went down 7-6 2-6 7-5.

"Well, it's pretty hard, but... that was the worst draw I could get," she said. "So I'm not gonna be positive today, and I have no excuse.

"I never felt the good rhythm, and I missed some opportunities in the third set. So it's very hard to win when you play like this."

Sharapova advances

Defending champion Maria Sharapova failed to match the sparkle of her 18 carat gold tennis shoes in the opening of her defence, but still advanced 6-2 6-2 over claycourter Nuria Llagostera Vives.

However the scoreline had as much to do with the Spaniard's unease on the slick grass as the champion's prowess.

"I can get a lot better from here obviously," she said.

"I did enough to win and so, you know, I'm pretty satisfied. The pace of the court here is a lot different (to clay). I think she struggled with that a little bit."

Still, though, Sharapova could not help but enjoy her match. "It was so amazing. I was just smiling," she said. "I usually don't smile when I go out on court.

"The people are clapping. You're just taking it all in. You're remembering last year.

"This is where magic happened, I guess. So it was just really good to feel that again."

Men's second seed Andy Roddick was far more impressive, thumping Czech Jiri Vanek 6-1 7-6 6-2.

The man with the world's fastest serve cracked 14 aces past his opponent as he racked up victory in 82 minutes.

"I felt like it was a pretty good performance," last year's runner-up said.

"You know, three sets, I'm through to round two. I felt like I hit the ball pretty cleanly."