2004 Jan 09 - Henman defeated in Doha Semi-Final

Tim Henman was unable to maintain his impressive winning streak as he crashed in 3 sets to the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 7-6(2) 3-6 7-6(5) in the Semi-Final of the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open.

It was Tim who had a chance to serve out the set at 6-5, only to be broken and force a tie-break which Ivan ran away with 7-2.

In the first game of the second set Tim broke the Ljubicic serve to go 1-0 up, only for play to be briefly halted due to rain. As the game recommenced Tim was able to keep his nose ahead without too much trouble to take the set.

With a place in the Final at stake the final set was tight, even with the players having to contend with more brief rain delays. The score reached 6-6 without a break of serve, resulting in a match deciding tie-break which saw Tim take a 2-5 lead only to concede the next 5 points to lose the tie-break 7-5.