May 23, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10,1423

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Duesseldorf, (Germany), May 22: Russian Marat Safin and Tim Henman of Britain put their respective nations into the lead Wednesday in group ties at the 2.1-million-dollar World Team Cup before light rain interrupted play.

Safin stood his ground on the clay of the Rochusclub and earned a win over Spaniard Alex Corretja, 6-4, 6-4, as he tries to earn a title for last year’s finalist Russia.

Henman shrugged off a slow start against German Nicolas Kiefer to earn the first point of the day for Britain with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 victory.

Both countries need victory to stay in contention for possible group honours at the eight-nation event. Winners from each group meet in the Saturday final.

The second singles matches had just gotten underway when drizzle began, forcing Briton Martin Lee off court against Germany’s Lars Burgsmuller. Yevegny Kafelnikov was playing Spaniard Albert Costa when the bad weather set in.

Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open winner, improved his career record against former French Open finalist Corretja to 4-1 with the victory and has now won the last three meetings between the pair.

The Russian said his confidence is building for the French Open, which starts on Monday.

“He (Corretja) is a difficult opponent and I had to work hard. You have to be patient and try to play your game. I’m quite happy I was able to play so well,” said Safin, who will be second seed at Roland Garros behind Lleyton Hewitt.

“I tried to go out and put pressure on him. I hope to maintain this level going into Paris.”

Henman is hoping to find the form which helped him to a Monte Carlo semi-final on last month. The Briton spent 91 minutes in taming Kiefer, who has won only four matches this season.

The win was a tale of two matches, the challenging first set and the runaway second.

“It was a struggle in the first,” said Henman. “There was no rhythm from either of us, but it’s better to win a long (56-minute) set like that than to lose it. In the second I was more aggressive and played better.”

Henman lost his serve to start the match but broke back in the third game against Kiefer. The opening set went into a tie-breaker, with Kiefer saving one set point before succumbing to a serve winner off the Henman racket.

In the second set, the Briton raced to a 4-1 lead and finished the victory on first match point.

“I felt in control during the majority of the tie-breaker,” said the winner. “In the second, I took confidence from the first and played much better tennis. I won the critical points.”