Johan Kriek- 'Our Tim' no match for Roger

LONDON — Tim Henman, upon whom the entire nation has invested its hopes and dreams for a British champion of its most famous tennis tournament, managed a pathetic six games against Roger Federer on Wednesday. "Our Tim" was a wet noodle against Roger. This may have been Henman's last hurrah. The sun may be setting on the British Empire. (Maybe not — keep reading.)

A great match to watch was Australian Lleyton Hewitt against Italian Filippo Volandri.

Hewitt was on "cruise control," giving Volandri only five games in three fast sets.

Andy Roddick struggled against Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia and Montenegro.

What? You never heard of good ol' Janko?

Well, who has? But it took Andy four long, hard sets — two with tiebreakers — to win the match. The scary thing is that Janko might have done better had he not gone out Tuesday night to get another body piercing over his eye and had it taped. Men's tennis is that deep.

I have a bone to pick about women's tennis. At tournaments where both men and women compete, the prize money is awarded equally — which, all things being equal, is understandable.

Proponents of this system argue that it's the "quality — not quantity" of play that justifies women receiving the same pay.

I question whether there is a lot of "quality" when the few top women players whip their opponents in a half hour while the men often play their five- setters for two or three hours. Not that I want players to punch a clock and get paid by the hour, but despite the size of the prize monies I'm not seeing the depth on the distaff side of tennis as there is on the men's side. The best thing, of course, would be to develop more good women players.

Bethanie Mattek from Florida was the gal who was plowed under by Venus Williams, winning just three games. (See my point above.) Well, if Bethanie cannot beat the big gals, she can at least make a strong "fashion statement."

Which leads me to my next gripe — clothes.

Tennis players used to wear "tennis whites." It was not that long ago when it caused an audible gasp when someone put on a white shirt with a colored stripe on the collar. Now what do you see? Clown outfits!

Mattek designs her own clothes and today chose long striped socks, coupled with oversized gym shorts and a sport bra over a strange- looking shirt. I think that may account in part for her abysmal match against Venus.

(Nah, I think it was the "fashion gods" showing their disapproval.)

Conversely, Venus also designs her clothes and accessories. Venus, for Pete's sake, were those earrings or fishing lures? If you end up with a snook hanging off one of them, don't say I didn't warn you.

PARTING RUMOR: Actually, it is probably more than just a rumor. I understand that Brad Gilbert (former player, former coach for Andy Roddick and others) has been offered an annual million-dollar salary to work with young Andrew Murray of Scotland — and the offer comes from the British Lawn Tennis Association! The Brits seemed determined to "grow" their own Wimbledon winner no matter how much it costs (well, it has been 70 years!).

Sorry, Tim — looks like it is gonna be "Our Andy" now.

Johan Kriek holds two Australian Open Grand Slam singles titles and has won three Wimbledon "Over 45 Doubles" titles, as well as two consecutive U.S. Open Master Doubles titles. He currently works as Ambassador of Sport and Director of Tennis for WCI Communities.