INDIAN WELLS, California, 21 March 2004 — Britain’s Tim Henman saved a match point before stunning third seed Andy Roddick 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open on Friday.

In the women’s event, top seed Justine Henin-Hardenne crushed fourth seed Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals to set up a final against Lindsay Davenport, who continued her assault on her third title by fighting off three second set points to defeat French 19th seed Natalie Dechy 6-2, 7-6.

Volleying brilliantly and capitalizing on Roddick’s weaker backhand, the ninth-seeded Henman never folded mentally despite squandering 4-2 leads in the opening two sets.

“I’m more aware of my own game now,” the Paris Indoors champion said after winning his 10th straight match at a Tennis Masters Series event.

Even though Roddick battled back from a break down to steal the first set with a cute forehand volley drop shot to win the tiebreaker, Henman never strayed from his game plan, which was to attack the Roddick backhand at all costs.

Henman raced out to a 4-2 lead in the second set, but Roddick broke back to 4-4 when the ninth seed dumped a forehand into the net.

Serving at 5-6, the Briton faced a match point but was able to power a 114-mph serve into the American’s body that Roddick could not handle.

Henman played an almost perfect tiebreaker, while the US Open champion uncharacteristically committed six unforced errors and managed to win only one point.

In a tense third set, Henman continued to press and converted on his third break point to lead 5-3 when the American pushed an easy overhead wide.

Henman, who reached the final here two years ago, served out the two-and-a-half hour match in impressive fashion, winning the contest when he clubbed a forehand crosscourt winner.

In beating Roddick for the third time in four matches, Henman ended the contest with 55 winners to 38, and won 52 of his 77 net approaches.

He next lines up against unseeded Georgian Irakli Labadze, who reached his first ATP semifinal with an upset 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory over James Blake of the US.

The winner of that match will meet either world No. 1 Roger Federer or crowd-favorite Andre Agassi in today’s final. Since losing in the Miami quarterfinals last March, Henin-Harnenne has won every WTA Tier I tournament she has entered and with her win over Myskina, is currently riding a 24-match winning streak in those events.

The Belgian punished Myskina from all angles of the court and was never threatened by an opponent suffering a slight tear in her right shoulder who later admitted to be feeling a sharp pain throughout the match.

While the American owns a 5-2 career edge over Henin-Hardenne, the Belgian has won their last two matches.

However, Henin-Hardenne is wary of Davenport’s power.