APPARENTLY, Sky TV has shown a record 680 hours of Masters Series tennis this year. The hour it would really have wanted — Tim Henman and David Nalbandian exchanging angry words, Henman’s sportsmanship called to account, Henman thrashing balls angrily into the court walls, Henman serving for the match and losing, Henman white-faced with rage — happened yesterday without a single camera in attendance.

Henman’s 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 defeat in the third round of the Mutua Madrileña Masters will be remembered for the unprecedented sight of the 32-year-old, who glories in the sobriquet “Gentleman Tim”, standing by the net post berating Nalbandian, an Argentinian whose matches can leave a bitter aftertaste with opponents.

Nalbandian said: “He always talks about being a gentleman but it isn’t true. It was the worst kind of garbage.”

Such insults are water off a duck’s back to Henman. Of more importance was the thought that he threw away a match he had done so markedly well to haul himself back into. He did play some glorious tennis — as he has for the past three weeks — and the likelihood is that he will end his season after the Basle tournament next week with a ranking between No 30 and No 35. Considering his crestfallen manner and the doom-laden prognostications after his second-round defeat at Wimbledon, it is a brilliant recovery.

On the Pista Alcala, the second court, Henman should have beaten Nalbandian, the Masters champion and world No 4, and served for the match at 5-4. At 15-all, the Argentinian manufactured a forehand return with the racket in front of his face that so deceived Henman, he lost the point. At 30-all, Henman skipped round a forehand, planting it long. Less than a cigarette paper’s width was between baseline and ball on break point when his forehand was called deep.

In the next game, the match bubbled like a witch’s brew. A first serve by Nalbandian at 15-30 was called wide, farthest from the umpire’s chair. Nalbandian raised his arms in disbelief. Mohammed Lahyani, the umpire, could not overrule, so Henman was drawn into the debate.

“I was lunging [for the serve] because it was close,” Henman said. “He [Nalbandian] said to me ‘how was it?’ and I said ‘well, I thought it was in’. He asked me what I thought. I said, ‘Yeah, I thought it was in.’ He said: ‘Well, you didn’t give me a first serve.’ A first serve at 5-5, 15-30 when I think your serve was in? I think he’s in a dream world.

“So then he starts questioning my sportsmanship. I think if we’re going down that road, there’s only one winner in that debate. That’s all there is to it.”

Which, of course, it is not. When Roger Federer, the world No 1 and close friend of Henman, was told of the scenario, he said: “It is very sad when these things are said on court, very unfortunate. They should be kept in the locker-room.”

Nalbandian can rub opponents up the wrong way, sometimes blatantly, sometimes not. Henman gave him an up-and-down look at the shake of hands in an unsatisfactory end.

For everyone who makes a spurt at this time of the year, many more cling to the hope that their bodies hold together. Andy Roddick’s 7-6, 6-3 defeat by Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, exacerbated by a twinge in the American’s left ankle, has forced a reappraisal. Roddick was not overly keen to play in Lyons next week and is likely to go home and prepare for the Masters Cup in Shanghai. He wanted to make sure that he would not be penalised, so called Thomas Karlberg, the ATP supervisor, for a long talk at the final changeover.

“They have all these fun rules where, because obviously next week is in doubt, I was just trying to cover my bases,” Roddick said. “A lot of times you pull out and if it’s after a certain date, you get fined thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars.”