Tim Henman produced a battling display but it was not enough to defeat Russian second seed Dmitry Tursunov in round two of the Nottingham Open, reports BBC.
Henman fought back from 4-1 down to take the first set into a tie-break only to lose the opener after surrendering three set points.
The Briton recovered to break twice in the second set to level the match.
Tursunov rallied in the decider and sealed a 7-6 (9-7) 3-6 6-2 victory with another superb winner.
Henman has now lost five of his six meetings with Tursunov, three of which were in Grand Slams - at Wimbledon in 2005 and at last year's Australian and French Opens.
Despite the defeat Henman, who has slipped to 78 in the world rankings, insisted he was pleased with his performance.
"I played some good tennis," he said. "In those types of conditions it is so tough to play, you look at the style of the match and Tursunov is just dominating, that is what he can do.''
"He is so powerful and you feel like you are just having to react so much, but I feel I did great to get back in the first set and had chances in the tie-break'', he said.
"Certainly I would have liked to have taken one of those and perhaps it could have been a different story after that", he added.
Henman humiliated by Tursunov
FE Team | Published: June 22, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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