ESPN.com - Wimbledon 2002 - It's now or never for Henman
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Thursday, July 17
It's now or never for Henman

This semifinal match is the biggest of Henman's career. He has to beat Lleyton Hewitt. If he wants to win a major, he must win this match.

Xavier Malisse (27), Belgium, vs. David Nalbandian (28), Argentina
The most pleasant surprise of the tournament is Xavier Malisse, who is finally, after four years on the tour, producing a result at a major championship that a lot of people have been expecting his whole career. When he busted on the scene, people thought that this guy had the potential to move quickly into that upper echelon.

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MaliVai Washington
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Former ATP Tour pro MaliVai Washington is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during Wimbledon. Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.
But he never broke through at a major championship. In 2001, he had his best year of his career -- finishing just outside of the top 30. It's great to see him producing the results that he has known were inside of him but he's never been able to release.

I didn't predict him beating Richard Krajicek to reach his first semifinal. But what Malisse's been able to do in this tournament is nothing short of amazing. He's beaten two of the best grass-courters in the world in back-to-back matches: Greg Rusedski and Krajicek. So without question, going into the semifinal, he's the favorite. He should win this match.

It's amazing that the 27 and 28th seeds are playing each other to reach their first Grand Slam final. I don't think they should be seeding more than 16 players, but that's another debate.

Once a player has reached the semifinal of a major, they have proved worthy of being one of the last four standing. But you can never, no matter who it is -- count them out. So don't count Nalbandian out. Anything can happen in the next three days. We might have the most unlikely champion the tournament has ever seen.

Lleyton Hewitt (1), Australia, vs. Tim Henman (4), Britain
Lleyton Hewitt almost made me look like I had a crystal ball that would never fail me. I said that he would never lose, but out of respect to Sjeng Schalken, that Hewitt would win in four sets. With Hewitt up two sets and having four match points in the third set, my prediction was looking pretty good. But Schalken showed just how fragile the No. 1 spot can be. Because over the next two sets, he showed that an 18th seed can almost beat the No. 1 player in the world. In the end, it was Hewitt who proved why he was No. 1.

Now he plays Tim Henman, who if he doesn't win this year's Wimbledon, he won't win Wimbledon in his career. It's so difficult to win a major, and he has been so close at Wimbledon. This is his fourth appearance in the semifinals, each previous time losing to the eventual champion. At some point, he's going to have to elevate his game and play the match of his life to make that next step to the final. He wasn't able to do it against Pete Sampras or Goran Ivanisevic.

In years past, when Henman made the semifinals at Wimbledon, he was always playing really good tennis, but once he got up against Sampras or Ivanisevic they were able to take him down. He wasn't able to elevate his game to a level to take out those two.

This year is different, he isn't playing as well as he has in previous years, but he is getting through. That's important because there's nothing better for your confidence than winning. So don't hold it against him because he's not playing his best tennis. However, he's going to have to play his best against Lleyton Hewitt, who beat him a week and a half ago in the finals of Queen's.

I think this match is going the distance. It will be the best match Wimbledon has seen in 2002. The winner of this match will win Wimbledon.

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