Tim Henman dipped into his special relationship with Wimbledon to bring him through one of the most epic matches of his career. With the famous hill which bears his name packed and with the Centre Court crowd roaring him on he carried on from where he left off the night before, when the light failed at 5-5 in the final set, to finish off Carlos Moya 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2 13-11. Henman has recorded more crucial triumphs. After all, this was a first-round match and he has contested four Wimbledon semi-finals. But in the cold light of another chilly Wimbledon day this one proved that there is still life, and lots of it, in the tennis career of the British number two as he closes in on his 33rd birthday. To all those who have written him off as his ranking sped south during a year in which he had won just two ATP matches and two Davis Cup rubbers he said: "The day I retire I'll come out and tell you I've retired. Until then I'll keep playing. Simple as that." There is little doubt that on days such as this Henman is still up there with the best when it comes to going to work on his favourite grass surface. Moya was seeded 25. He is a former French Open champion and world number one and while he has no pedigree on grass he surprised Henman with the heavy precision of his serve and his willingness to mix it at the net with one of the most natural serve-volleyers in the game. But he did not have the support of a raucous home crowd, nor a conviction borne out of a life-long passion for Wimbledon. Henman said: "This place is so special to me. I've had so many experiences here over the years. I always believe that good things are going to happen. I came here when I was six to watch for the first time. I was running around the outside courts watching every match. I went on Centre Court. I remember those feelings. "Now I'm at the centre of it all. There's this hill where everyone watches from and it's Henman Hill. "It's sort of tough to fathom. It's been my dream. And today was another time when I was out there fulfilling my dreams." It was that "belief" which proved most crucial. It allowed Henman to come back when 4-2 down in the final set and 15-40 on his serve with the gloom descending on Monday evening and allowed him to feed on the "incredible atmosphere" when the match resumed, one which made this first-round encounter as close to a gladiatorial shoot-out as tennis gets. The nerveless demeanour shown by both men in such circumstances said much for their cold-eyed experience. Service game after service game went by, Henman at times clinging by the slenderest of threads when he survived break points in the 23rd game of the set. The breakthrough came in the very next game although Henman still made hard work of it, two more match points going the way of the four he squandered on Monday before Moya eventually pushed a second serve long for a double fault which deprived an epic match of a fitting finale. Did Henman care? "You'd like to finish on a running forehand pass," he admitted. "But at that stage you're very open to any gifts. I was pretty happy to see it go long." The bonus now is that the draw suddenly opens up for Henman, who would expect to beat next opponent - Feliciano Lopez - especially in the knowledge of already having dodged his original likely third-round opponent, Andy Murray. | 
