Henman bids to extend SW19 adventure

The match was locked at 5-5 in the final set when play was called off, with the light failing and the Centre Court crowd almost unable to bear the tension at 9.18pm on Monday night.

Before Henman had embarked on his latest epic, McEnroe had said: "He's been dogged by the loser tag and that's unfair."

Henman squandered four match points in the fifth set as he upped the aggression to come from 3-1 down to wrest the initiative from Moya after the first four sets had been shared 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2.

They will come back on Tuesday to finish off three hours and seven minutes of the sort of action which has made Henman such an institution on the lawns of SW19.

Henman had won just two ATP first round matches and two Davis Cup rubbers all season. He had slipped to 78 in the world rankings and was up against a man in Moya who had won a Grand Slam, albeit at the French Open in 1998, and who was seeded 25 at this year's tournament.

Henman, however, as former Wimbledon champion Jimmy Connors reminded everyone, is tennis' "last grass court specialist".

It meant this was the most even of first-round match-ups and so it proved, although the biggest surprise was that the Spanish clay-courter attempted to take on Henman at his own serve-and-volley game.