Safin out but Henman, Rusedski go through

Ossian Shine

Top seed Marat Safin wasted two match points and was knocked out of the Stella Artois tournament 4-6 6-4 7-6 by Dutchman Peter Wessels on Thursday.

But fourth seed Tim Henman beat Australia's Wayne Arthurs by the narrowest of margins 6-7 7-6 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals.

Fellow Briton Greg Rusedski also made the quarters, the 12th seed dispatching Belarussian eighth seed Vladimir Votchkov 6-2 6-2 with the minimum of fuss.

Rain caused play to be abandoned before the end of Thursday's schedule. Second seed Pete Sampras was leading Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands 2-1 while defending champion and third seed Lleyton Hewitt and Zimbabwe's Byron Black had not started their match.

Towering Russian Safin, the reigning U.S. Open champion, got off to a good start in the third round match but Wessels's grasscourt expertise told as the contest wore on.

Wessels, ranked 102 in the world, grabbed the first mini-break in the decisive tie-break, only for Safin to snatch it back and secure a first match point.

It was saved by the Dutchman, who saved one more with a sliding serve before clinching victory when Safin -- without a title this year -- poked a backhand volley into the net.

"That was the best win of my career," Wessels said. "I have never played a player ranked that high before. I think my volleys were the key.

NOT FAVOURITE
Wessels, whose only career title came on grass at Newport in the U.S. last year, will play seventh seed Wayne Ferreira of South Africa in the quarter-finals of the $800,000 event.

Ferreira beat Dutchman Raemon Sluiter 6-3 6-3.

Despite his result against Safin, Wessels insists grass is not his best surface. "It is not my favourite...but I guess I get good results on it because the other guys like it even less."

Safin said he was pleased with his performance. "I don't know why everyone says Safin can't play on grass," he said.

"Basically I think I was a little bit unlucky. Come on, it was a three-set match and I had two match points."

The world number three does not plan any more tournaments before Wimbledon on June 25.

"No...believe me, one week on grass is enough...more than enough," Safin smiled.

The Russian said he planned to play two grasscourt exhibition matches next week and practise on a fast indoor court to fine-tune his timing.

DRILLED BACKHAND
Henman eked out a victory against 16th-seeded Arthurs to keep his Wimbledon preparation right on track.

There was little to separate the pair of serve-volleyers throughout the match but Arthurs edged the first set on a tiebreak.

Henman fought back in the second to level matters.

In the decider, the Briton scratched out a break point on the Arthurs serve at 2-2. He drilled a backhand pass down the line which Arthurs got a racket to then sent a forehand running pass skidding beyond the left-hander's lunge to lead 3-2.

But three games later the Australian broke back firing a series of whipped service returns past the advancing Henman for 4-4.

Arthurs nosed ahead by holding serve for 5-4 and again for 6-5. But Henman held on for a third tiebreak.

Arthurs nudged a backhand volley long to give Henman a 3-1 lead and that was the only advantage he needed and closed it out 7-4.

"I am extremely pleased with my performance," Henman said afterwards. "Of course it is nice to get the win but whichever way the match had gone I would have been happy with my performance.

"He has got pretty much the best serve on the Tour so I am delighted with the way I handled that especially."