IT would be typical of Tim Henman if, after all these years of frenetic failure at Wimbledon, he made his maiden Grand Slam appearance in the one arena where he can play virtually unnoticed.

There is no Henman Hill at Roland Garros. There isn't even a Henman Hump - so used are seasoned observers of the French Open to the tame surrender of the British number one.

Yet when he faces Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarter-finals at Paris this afternoon, Henman will stand on the brink of the one of the greatest achievements of his illustrious career.

Victory today would take Henman through to his fifth Grand Slam semi-final but, tellingly, it would be the first time that he has gone as far beyond the environs of his favoured SW19.

Sunday's thrilling five-set win over Frenchman Michael Llodra has already made Henman the first British quarter-finalist at Roland Garros since Roger Taylor in 1973.

And, by twice winning from two sets down in the space of just seven days, Henman has emphatically answered the critics who suggested he possessed neither the stamina nor the resolve to survive the slog of a Grand Slam tournament.

At the start of the year, most tennis commentators expected Henman to start winding down a professional career that has spanned more than 11 years.

He will turn 30 in September - an age beyond which very few male players survive - and struggled throughout last season with a serious shoulder injury that forced him to adapt the first service that had always been so crucial to his serve and volley game.

Last October's Masters Series win in Paris hinted at something of a renaissance but, in January, it still looked like he would struggle to keep pace with the raft of talented youngsters establishing themselves in the top ten.

More success wasn't out of the question but, if he was going to make his mark on any major tournament, it was surely going to be in the comforting surrounds of Wimbledon.

Henman even acknowledged as much himself, admitting that he was going to have to pick and choose his tournaments carefully and focus his efforts on the summer grass court season.

That plan was already being redrawn when Henman made the last four of the Qatar Open in his first outing of the year and, despite a third round exit in the Australian Open, the 29-year-old played some of the best tennis of his life to reach the final of March's lucrative Pacific Life event. Instead of viewing the clay court season as a useful warm-up to Wimbledon, Henman entered it believing he could compete on a surface he had previously found alien.

The French Open is simply not conducive to a serve and volley game - but it is considerably more welcoming to a serve and volleyer with the necessary ground strokes to mix and match his game.

Henman's recent injury problems have made him less of a potent threat on grass as they have forced him to reduce the speed of his first serve and restricted his ability to follow his opening shot into the net.

But, ironically, they have helped him to improve on all other surfaces as they have forced him to work on the placement of his ground strokes and the manner in which he dictates rallies from the back third of the court.

Henman will never be a clay courter in the style of the South Americans and Spaniards who dominate the remainder of the draw.

But he has emerged as one of the best all court players in the game, with a supreme ability at the net now complimented by a far more rounded arsenal of shots.

His new-found adaptability will come under intense scrutiny this afternoon when he comes face to face with Chela, a clay court specialist if ever there was one.

Llodra was not afraid to take Henman on at the net in Sunday's fourth round clash. Chela will only come close to it when he changes ends today, instead trying to draw his opponent into punishing baseline exchanges that sap his energy and resolve.

The quarter-final clash will be Henman's biggest test of a tournament that has so far seen him face nobody ranked higher than number 79 in the world.

But, if he can come through it, Britain will finally have a player standing on the brink of a Grand Slam success on foreign soil.

Given the way his game has evolved over the last year, it might not be the last time Britain's Henmaniacs are forced overseas for their annual fix.