Tennis News:Tim Henman achieved his first ATP Tour victory since February at the Nottingham Open yesterday.
The British number two qualified for the second round of a tournament for only the second time in 2007 with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) defeat of Michael Russell of the United States.
It has been a difficult year for the former world number four, who has suffered first-round exits from Queen's and the French Open in recent weeks and has seen his ranking slump to its lowest for 11 years.
The 32-year-old raced through the opening set with an impressive combination of powerful groundstrokes and trademark volleys against Russell, who is 69 in the world rankings.
But Henman was given a scare in the second as Russell gained an immediate break to take the opening game before he broke back immediately.
An excellent sliced volley from the American and a Henman double fault at 3-3 gave Russell further chances but each time the world number 78, finding perfect length with many of his shots, was able to find an answer, eventually triumphing on a tie-breaker.
Waiting for Henman in the last 16 is second seed Dmitry Tursunov, who defeated him in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago and has lost to the British player just once in their five meetings.
The world number 24 swept aside Robert Kendrick of the United States 6-1, 6-4 on what was a successful day for the Russians after Igor Kunitsyn ended the challenge of third seed Agustin Calleri 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
Stanislaw Wawrinka was another seed to fall, succumbing to big serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic 3-6, 6-7 but eighth seed Arnaud Clement kept his Nottingham hopes alive with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of former Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson.
