Tim Henman revealed on Sunday why his clay court form in 2003 had been so woeful -- he damaged his ears.
The 29-year-old Briton, who won the Paris Masters here on Sunday, said that his little daughter Rosie had been keeping him awake at night when he was playing at the Masters in Rome and to blot out the noise, he reached for the earplugs.
Next day, he felt unwell and lost 6-2, 6-1 in the first round to Argentina's Guillermo Coria.
"My daughter was making a lot of noise when she was sleeping so I had some earplugs from the plane. I thought: `Perfect, I'll put these in.' I jammed them in and slept amazingly. But when I got up I felt really strange. I felt a little wobbly, my legs were a bit funny and I still felt strange out on the practice court.
"I only hit for 10 or 15 minutes and I said to Larry [Stefanki, Henman's coach at the time]: `Something's not right. I've got no energy.' In the match I was exhausted. I was done after three games.
"Whacked the earplugs in again that night. Slept well again but woke up feeling even worse and went to see a doctor.
"He asked me if I had ever had problems with my ears and I said no. But I was thinking that I had never slept with earplugs before and when he looked in my ear he said I had messed up my middle ear, which is your balance.
"So trying to get some sleep screwed up my balance -- it's a form of vertigo."
Henman, never the best clay court player, won just five matches on his dreaded surface all year but he was all smiles on Sunday when he clinched his first ever Masters title with a 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-2) win over Andrei Pavel of Romania.
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