Henman Vs. Ivanisevic rematch confirmed by draw

Added on: November 9, 2010

Tim Henman will face Goran Ivanisevic across a tennis net for the first time since their famous Wimbledon semifinal in 2001 after they were drawn into the same group for the AEGON Masters Tennis tournament which takes place at the Royal Albert Hall in London next month. 

The pair are scheduled to meet in the round-robin stages on Wednesday 1st December in what will be Henman’s first appearance at the hugely popular tournament, which is now in its 14th year.

“I’m really looking forward to playing Goran again,” said Henman. “Our match from 2001 in the semi’s of Wimbledon was such a unique match and such a special match because it was of huge importance to both of us. If there’s one match that people want to talk about with me it’s probably that match. l look forward to playing him again, and hopefully beating him this time.”

Ivanisevic is equally excited by the prospect of once again playing the man that he beat on his way to that life-changing Wimbledon title.

“Whenever I see Tim I think of that match, and it’s going to be great to play him again, especially in England at the Royal Albert Hall,” said Ivanisevic, who had tried and failed to win a Grand Slam in his other three Wimbledon finals in 1992, 1994 and 1998.

“Tim deserved to win Wimbledon, he had a good game to win it, and he was very close against me. He was dominating me and then the rain came. It saved me. If it hadn’t come I probably would have lost that match, but then after the rain, something changed. He wasn’t the same Tim Henman any more. God sent me the rain and I thank God I won every day because I do not like to think what I would be doing now if I had not won.”

Completing their group of three will be Morrocan Younes El Aynaoui, who Henman will face in his first match on the opening day of the event – Tuesday 30th November.

This year, the AEGON Masters Tennis event will feature a 12-man singles field, with last year’s champion Pat Rafter drawing the 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and debutant Todd Martin in the round-robin stages. Rafter’s compatriot Mark Philippoussis faces the current No.1 player in the South African Airways Rankings – Thomas Enqvist, and Britain’s Jeremy Bates.

In the fourth and final group, the 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski, former World No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov and the 2008 champion Cedric Pioline have been drawn together.

Matches will be played over the best of three sets, with the third set taking the form of a first-to-ten point Champions’ Tie-Break. The top two players in each group will advance to the quarterfinals on Friday 3rd December, with the semifinals and final contested over the following two days.

As well as singles competition, there will also be a full programme of doubles matches, involving multiple Wimbledon doubles champion Mark Woodforde and the ever-popular Mansour Bahrami amongst others.

The provisional schedule of singles matches is listed on the Schedule page –  www.aegonmasterstennis.com/schedule/. Please note that doubles matches are still to be added and that the Tournament Management reserves the right to change the schedule and participants at any time.

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