TENNIS: Tim Henman's Olympic medal hopes took a leap as he came from within two points of defeat to beat Hicham Arazi in a compelling match that finished before a couple of hundred people, thousands of insects and assorted barn owls and bats on an outside court at one o'clock in the morning.

Henman began the match needing to climb above Spain's Carlos Moya, the world number four, to earn a top-four seeding for Athens on Monday. He finished it knowing that in the final set he had produced one of his most creative performances, but unaware that the world number three Guillermo Coria, who flew home to Argentina from here on Wednesday with a bad shoulder, had withdrawn from the Olympics.

This should ensure Henman is in the top four for Athens, and his 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over the Moroccan gave him a place in the last 16 of this Masters Series event and an encounter with the former world number one Lleyton Hewitt, the only leading player he has never beaten.

Dark and warlike clouds twice arrowed down rain, forcing the players to flee and extending their contest over three hours into the night. Once, Arazi chased a large moth along the baseline while Henman was waiting to serve, bringing ripples of amusement as he scooped it up and handed it to a front-row spectator.

Later Arazi elicited gasps when he hammered his racket ferociously on the net as the spoils began to slip through his fingers. Henman served well when it mattered, conjured a crafty mixture of stratagems and increasingly invested himself in the unique moment.

"To play this late, it feels good to win; it wouldn't have felt good to lose," he said.