PARIS, 3 November 2003 — Tim Henman capped the finest week of his tennis career by winning the Paris Masters title with a 6-2, 7-6, 7-6 defeat of Romania’s Andrei Pavel yesterday.
The Briton’s victory was his first in a Masters Series event, earned him a check of 450,000 euros ($526,800) and re-established the 29-year-old among the world’s top players.
Henman, totally in command in the first set of a lackluster final, was cruising midway through the second set before a series of unforced errors allowed Pavel to break back to 5-5 and force a tiebreak.
Up 6-4 in the tiebreak Henman, who has a habit of collapsing under the pressure of the big occasion, wasted his first set point with a double fault and then the second.
Pavel slammed his racket to the ground in frustration when a Henman volley earned the Briton his third set point and this time he made the most of it, winning the tiebreak 8-6. With Pavel serving with more vigor and stepping into Henman’s delivery, the third set was evenly matched until the tiebreak which Henman ran away with 7-2 to clinch the title. It was the first Masters Series final for seven years between two unseeded players. Pavel’s last title was in 2001 at the Montreal Tennis Masters.
Henman lost just one set in six matches and had played superb serve-volley tennis to beat Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals and newly crowned world No. 1 Andy Roddick in the semis.
He has struggled to find his best form following shoulder surgery 12 months ago but he said this week he had never played as consistently well in his career.
Once ranked as high as fourth, he had slipped as low as 42 but yesterday’s title returns Henman to the top 15.
Pavel, out for six months this year with wrist and back injuries, did not win a match in his first eight tournaments of 2003 and appeared exhausted in the first set after his three-set semifinal defeat of 14th seed Jiri Novak.
Mauresmo, Myskina Advance to Philly Final
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one night after securing a spot in the WTA Tour Championships, Anastasia Myskina earned a spot in the final of the Advanta Championships, where she’ll take on French second seed Amelie Mauresmo.
The third-seeded Myskina outlasted fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 on Saturday night in the semifinals of this hardcourt event. Ninth in the WTA rankings, Myskina had nailed down a berth in the season-ending tournament in Los Angeles with a straight-sets rout of unseeded German Marlene Weingartner in Friday’s quarterfinals. Mauresmo had to rally for a 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 triumph over fifth-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan.
Sequera Stuns Pierce to Reach First Career Final
In Quebec City, Canada, unseeded Milagros Sequera continued her improbable run at the $170,000 Bell Challenge on Saturday, reaching her first career WTA Tour final with a rout of top-seeded Mary Pierce of France.
Sequera, a Venezuelan who has spent most of the year on the lesser ITF Tour, silenced the partisan crowd by embarrassing the Montreal-born Pierce 6-4, 6-0.
She has now won four straight matches and she’ll try to knock off her third seeded victim in this tournament in No. 2 Maria Sharapova of Russia, who is gunning for her second title. Sharapova had a tougher time as she rallied for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over fourth-seeded American Laura Granville.
