Henman falls to qualifier

Henman squandered a lead in the third set

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A laboured performance from Tim Henman saw him dumped out of the Hamburg Masters 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 4-6 by qualifier Adrian Voinea.

The British number one failed to maintain his recent good form on clay and lost to the Romanian outsider in a little over two hours 30 minutes.

Voinea will next meet 11th-seeded Swiss Roger Federer.

"That certainly wasn't the best result this week, but there's still plenty to work on," Henman said.

"You know, with the conditions out there it is very difficult. You feel like a lot of points are the same and it is hard to get a reward for hitting a good shot.

"He is the type of player in these conditions who can do an awful lot of damage. He hits a flat ball and that kind of penetration is dangerous.

Henman refused to be too discouraged by defeat.

"I never like to lose, but we played a long hard match and in the last two games, at four-all, he played better than me, plain and simple.

"So he deserved to win the match."

Both players struggled to find any real consistency on serve in a match that saw 11 breaks.

Voinea, who had lost to 15-year-old Richard Gasquet in Monte Carlo, saved his best tennis for when it mattered most.

Aggressive approach

After looking down and out early in the deciding set he came back to break Henman at 4-4 and then served out the match for an upset victory.

But the Briton should never have let his opponent off the hook after breaking him four times in succession and winning eight games out of nine late in the second set and early in the third.

Henman began appearing happy to grind down Voinea from the baseline and wait for him to make errors.

Henman broke Voinea four times in a row

But with both men unable to deliver consistently on first serve, the mistakes were as liable to come from the Briton's racquet as the Romanian's.

The first set reached 6-6 on one break apiece, but a forehand into the net from Henman gave Voinea the chance to take the tie-break 7-5.

Things went from bad to worse for the British player as he was immediately broken in the opening game of the second set.

But that failure sparked him back into life, and he adopted a more varied and aggressive approach to win five straight games and take the set 6-2.

Henman carried his renewed dynamism into the third set and looked to have the match in the bag when he broke again for a 2-0 lead.

However, a dismal service game from the Briton immediately ushered Voinea back into the contest and the Romanian proved the more inspired at the crucial moment to take the deciding set.

Henman afterwards confirmed that he would travel to the World Team Cup event in Dusseldorf, regardless of whether injured compatriot Greg Rusedksi makes the journey.

"If Greg is not there, I can play with Martin (Lee)," he said ahead of the national team competition.

"I am looking forward to getting a few more matches under my belt."