June 26, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1423

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LONDON, June 25: Tim Henman touched on the sublime Tuesday with a Wimbledon performance of near-perfection to rubberstamp his status as strong favourite for the grasscourt grand slam title.

It is 66 years since a Briton has won the All England Club men’s crown but Henman — a semifinalist three of the last four years — spelled out his intention with a 6-1 6-3 6-2 first round victory over Frenchman Jean-Francois Bachelot.

While Henman was thrilling a grateful British Court One crowd, Venus Williams was torching the hopes of British wildcard Jane O’Donoghue, fanciful as they were.

Seeking a third successive Wimbledon crown, the top seed and world number one was unstoppable, battering the Briton 6-1 6-1.

Also in scintillating form was fourth seed Monica Seles who thrashed Spain’s Eva Bes 6-0 6-0.

Lleyton Hewitt followed Williams onto Centre Court and warranted his top-seeding by making light work of a potentially tricky clash with Swede Jonas Bjorkman.

Bjorkman was still flushed from victory at the Samsung Open in Nottingham last week, when he won his fifth career title, and a second on grass.

But this is Wimbledon, not Nottingham, and Hewitt is world number one. The Australian won 6-4 7-5 6-1.

He is confident, but he is certainly not engaged to women’s fifth seed Kim Clijsters.

Clijsters beat American Samantha Reeves 6-2 7-6 before turning her thoughts to the more scurrilous rumours in British newspapers.

One had reported that Hewitt proposed to her on the top of the Eiffel Tower, but the Belgian laughed it off.

Clijsters’ compatriot Justine Henin, runner-up here last year, had her hands full with on-court matters as she made heavy weather of American Brie Rippner.

The sixth seed eventually scraped through 6-2 6-7 6-1.

But there were no close shaves for Venus who put on a deadly display of power and speed.

Even at this early stage of the tournament, with her sister Serena also a 6-1 6-1 winner in her first-round outing on Monday and Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis absent through injury, the chances of the Williams sisters reprising their French Open final clash look high.

She silenced Centre Court upstart O’Donoghue in just 45 minutes, and every single one of the 343 ranking placings separating the world number one and the 19-year old local were underlined in this grasscourt mis-match.

Even world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, sitting courtside, winced as the thundering deliveries crashed down from the American’s side of the court.

Henman has no mountains to climb, but he does have an army of fans on ‘Henman Hill’.

They were treated to a vintage performance by the Briton who next faces Australian Scott Draper, a 6-3 4-6 6-4 7-5 winner over Cristiano Caratti.