Tim Henman scurried into the quarter-finals of the World Indoor Tournament with a clinical 6-4, 6-1 win over Frenchman Michael Llodra on Thursday.
The British number one had been left twiddling his fingers in the locker room for more than three hours as he waited to begin his match. When he finally stepped on court at 2230 local time, he was in no mood to hang around for long.
"I'd like to thank everyone for hanging around so late," Henman told the sparse crowd courtside.
"It's not so easy when there's a lot of hanging around but it was a good match for me."
A three-times runner-up here, the third seed was looking to reach the quarter-finals for the sixth time in eight appearances and earned his first break point in Llodra's opening service game.
The 52nd ranked Llodra survived that scare with an ace. Although the Frenchman did not drop a point in his next three service games, he crumbled while trying to stay in the set at 5-4 down.
A smashed volley into the net handed Henman the set after 32 minutes.
The error effectively took the fight out of Llodra as he moved lethargically around the court and quickly fell behind 5-0.
After saving the embarrassment of suffering a love set, Llodra bowed out by floating a forehand long.
Henman will next be looking to avenge his defeat by Croatia's Mario Ancic at last year's Wimbledon when the duo meet on Friday.
"He played a great match at Wimbledon but I'd like to get some revenge, that will be sweet," he said.
