WIMBLEDON, England – For a few minutes, it looked as if Tim Henman was just playing another early round prank on his adoring fans. He trailed 5-4, 40-15 in the fifth set, and a powerful Californian, by way of Russia, stood across the net, just one hard serve from an upset. No problem for Henman. He would chip and charge and break even for five all.

Unfortunately for the Brit, his opponent, Dmitry Tursunov, had been in this predicament before. Though Tursunov missed six months in the last year after injuring his back in a boating accident, he had powerful memories to guide him. He upset Marat Safin in the first round here last year. And there was the time he outlasted Gustavo Kuerten through five grueling sets in the first round of the 2003 U.S Open.

When the sixth-seeded Henman gave Tursunov a second chance after playing a pitiful service game at 6-6, Tursunov knew what to do with it. He aced the Brit on match point, winning 3-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6.

And so once again, England mourns for Henman … and curses him, and loathes him, and says it no longer wants anything to do with him. For 12 Wimbledons running, the nation’s best player has disappointed his fans, though he hasn’t made an exit this quickly since his second-round loss in 1995, his second appearance at the All England Club.

When the match ended, fans fled “Henman Hill” as John McEnroe dissected the latest installment of “The Collapse” on the giant television screen. Before the day was out, though, a new gathering ground was born: “Murray Mound,” named for 18-year-old Scot Andrew Murray, who carried on into the third round yesterday with a 6-4,6-4,6-4 win over no. 14 seed Radek Stepanek.

Less than two minutes before Henman bowed out, French Open champion Rafael Nadal fell to Gilles Muller, a Luxembourg native whose serve-and-volley game was too much for the claycourt king. The passing shot Nadal missed on match point would undoubtedly have been a winner on clay. On grass, however, the ball stayed too low for one of his trademark topspin drives.

No one expected Nadal to last very long here, never mind win. Yet he had a favorable draw, and it’s hard to bet against someone bursting with the kind of talent and energy that Nadal showcased at Roland Garros. Thankfully for the sport, the 19-year-old Spaniard is not about to give up on grass.

“I need to improve my volley, I need to improve my serve, I need to improve my confidence with the game on grass,” he said. “And for that I need to play a lot of matches.”

The story of the day, though, was the 30-year-old Henman, followed by Murray, the lad who looks poised to replace him at the throne of British tennis.

Henman, a four-time Wimbledon semifinalist, was ornery on the court, complaining about a ball boy and receiving a warning for foul language. The BBC even apologized for his words.

As for his tennis, Henman played more from the baseline, a tactic he has employed in an effort to adapt, he says, to slower conditions at Wimbledon in recent years. The Tim of old would never have considered such a plan, but the present-day Henman is perhaps more well-suited to hard courts, as he readily admitted afterward. The more serious question was whether he had given any thought to hanging it up. Henman did not hold back.

“I would think about it if all of you who are ninth best in the world and below quit with me,” he said to a roomful of journalists. “But there wouldn’t be many of you left, would there?”

Tursunov was not about to improve Henman’s mood. The 22-year-old owns an enormous serve and has long been a dangerous player. His biggest problem has been staying healthy. Last year, a friend of his misjudged a wake and landed their boat hard on the water, breaking a vertebra in Tursunov’s back. More recently, he has battled a knee injury.

“Thank God, they have good anti-inflammatories here,” he said.

And good courts for a man with such a big game.

“I still prefer hard courts, but it seems like I do really well on grass,” Tursunov said.

Murray, who is keen to remind people that he is a Scotsman, prefers hard courts too. He once said the U.S. Open, where he won the boys’ title last year, was his favorite Grand Slam. Wimbledon, he said, was a little dull.

One never would have guessed by yesterday’s win over Stepanek, in which he was full of fist pumps and emotion, despite having come down with an illness the night before (might have been the chicken curry, he said).

Earlier this year, Stepanek gave Nadal fits with his serve-and-volley play, and that was on clay in Rome. Armed with a deceptive technique and effective serve, Stepanek came in as a big favorite.

But Murray proved that he is not unfamiliar with the art of disguise. He pressured Stepanek with precise service returns from both the forehand and backhand wings, often surprising the Czech with his chosen target. Though Murray possesses no overwhelming weapons, he makes few mistakes and often flashes a deft slice backhand. His timing was impeccable yesterday, allowing him to take the ball early and create sharp angles. When Stepanek, who is known for his gamesmanship, tried to rattle the young Scot by staring him down at the net, Murray would have none of it.

“He was just trying to put me off,” Murray said. “He ends up looking a bit stupid because he lost.”