More heartbreak for Henman

Kuerten squeaked past Henman in a thrilling final set

Tim Henman blew a glorious chance to upset world number one Gustavo Kuerten at the RCA Championships in Indianapolis.

Britain's number one earned four match points in the third and final set of his quarter-final clash with the top-seeded Brazilian on Friday, but let each slip away.

And Kuerten recovered his composure to close out the match 3-6 6-1 7-5.

It is the second time in as many weeks that Henman has lost narrowly to Kuerten, having gone down 2-6 6-1 6-7 in the semi-finals in Cincinnati.

But things could have been so different.

After sharing the first two sets, Henman leapt out to a commanding 3-0 in the third, before allowing Kuerten to claw back the break in the fifth game.

And, after the heartbreak of losing match points in a tense tenth game, the Briton surrendered a second break immediately, misfiring on serve with three double faults.

Safin success

Kuerten will now play Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic in the last four after the Croatian 10th seed beat Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco 7-5 6-3.

The other semi-final will be contested by second seed Marat Safin, of Russia, and Australian fifth seed Pat Rafter.

Safin, the reigning US Open champion, continued his preparation for this year's tournament with a 7-5 6-4 win over Sweden's Thomas Enqvist.

While Rafter, victorious at Flushing Meadows in 1997 and 98, enjoyed a 6-3 7-6 triumph over Max Mirnyi, of Belarus.