Federer maintains his hold over Henman

Forehand good, two sets bad: Henman close, but Federer prevails, again
14 April 2012

Roger Federer's stranglehold over Tim Henman continued as the Swiss secured a 6-3 6-3 victory to take the Japan Open title in Tokyo.

It is the sixth consecutive defeat for the 32-year-old Henman against the world number one and his third this year, having lost to Federer at Wimbledon and the US Open.

But it had been hard to separate the two after the first five games of the first set, with Federer leading 3-2 but after that the Swiss streaked away to a 6-3 victory.

The second got off to much a similar start as Henman battled but Federer proved too strong to take the set 6-3.

It was a ninth title of the year for the Swiss, who now leads his career head to head with the Briton 7-6.

"I was surprised because I had jet-lag," Federer said. "To always keep winning is a very difficult thing to do. To come here right away and win the tournament is fantastic."

Playing for the first time in Japan, and his first tournament since winning last month's US Open, Federer improved his finals record to 42 wins from 55 matches and his 2006 win-loss ratio to 77-5.

Henman, in his first final since losing to Federer at Indian Wells in March 2004 won the last of his 11 career titles at the Paris Masters in November 2003.

Despite the defeat, Henman was satisfied with his week's work after reaching the final without dropping a set.

"It's been really enjoyable," he told personal website, www.timhenman.org. "Last week in Bangkok I played some good tennis and this week I was able to build on that.

"I've had some good wins against higher ranked players in both tournaments and, here in Tokyo, I was able to get stuck into the event and I put in some really good performances throughout the week.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go the whole way but there are plenty of positives for me to take from the trip as I feel I've showed on the match court what I've been feeling in practice for a while now.

"Roger was too strong for me today and he's a phenomenal player - there's very few that can live with him on any surface other than clay at the moment.

"It's difficult to hurt him as he's got so many strengths and so few weaknesses and, the scary thing is, he's still improving.

"So it's tough to compete with him, especially in the latter stages of tournaments when he's had a chance to build up his confidence, but that's what we've all got to try to do.

"It's a formidable challenge - but competing against arguably the greatest player of all time is the ultimate test and so it's one that I still enjoy."

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