Tim Henman piled on the tension and the excitement as usual as he gave the Centre Court crowd another trademark late-night thriller.

With the clock on the scoreboard twinkling 9.18pm in the Wimbledon gloaming, Henman's first-round match against Spain's Carlos Moya was called off for bad light with the score 6-3, 1-6, 5-7, 6-2, 5-5.

They will come back today to finish off three hours and seven minutes of the sort of action which has made the Oxfordshire star such an institution on the lawns of SW19.

The raucous crowd evoked memories of Henmania at its peak and if it was a curate's egg of a performance - with Henman squandering four match points in the fifth set - then that only added to the excitement.

The first set saw the 32-year-old British No 2, who lives at Aston Tirrold, near Didcot, play tennis which rolled back the years.

His serve was smooth and his volley crisp.

The fourth game was key, Henman producing a series of backhand winners and eventually gaining the breakthrough on his fourth break point.

The rains came on a stop-start afternoon as Henman was serving for the set.

But he returned after an hour and a half to save a break point and deliver two unreturnable serves to take the set.

It appeared he was on his way, but Henman's career has never been predictable. Some days are chalk, some cheese.

And his second set simply stank the place out as the unforced errors gushed from his racket.

The third set needed Henman to show the grit and determination which had given the Wimbledon crowd so many tense late-night thrillers down the past decade.

And he duly dug in as both men found their best tennis. Henman had two break points on Moya's first service game, but could not convert.

But Moya was beginning to read the Henman serve and the Spaniard broke in the 11th game before serving out with a powerful ace to take control.

Again Henman rallied, taking the fourth set as the Spaniard faltered.

And so it went to the fifth - and it looked as if Henman's chance had gone when Moya broke serve in the third game.

But back came Henman again, feeding on the crowd's support and breaking back courtesy of a Moya double fault.

He should have won it before the light closed in, spurning four match points in the tenth game.

But then with Henman nothing is ever straight- forward.