HENMAN IS SMASH WITHOUT ANY FLASH.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Tim Henman is an English tennis player. And more.

He's English cooking. He's English weather. He's English humor.

Dull. Drab. Dry.

He's boring even to the English. Which makes him, when you think about it, a curiosity in a tennis world of neon personalities.

Henman defeated Byron Black of Zimbabwe 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 Friday afternoon to advance to a semifinal match in the Mercedes-Benz Cup at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. He did it in typically stolid style, shrugging off a linesman's error near the end of the first set as well as his own inconsistencies without so much as a frustrated shout.

He'll face Guillaume Raoux of France today in the semifinals and, as they say in his native Oxford, Henman oughta moiderize him. But that would be too flashy.

I'm thinking of the way Henman, 23, is regarded by the press back home. Here's a column in The Observer shortly after his semifinal loss to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon a month ago.

``Prickly, Prissy Perfectionist Who Pulls All the Right Strings,'' reads the headline. If the word ``prissy'' ever appears in the headline over one of my columns, I'll expect to get slugged in the clubhouse the next day.

Anyway, the story notes Henman's ``somewhat anonymous brand of good looks,'' ``impassive demeanor,'' and his purposely unprovocative conversation. His coach, his girlfriend and even his parents come in for criticism, ``all apparently schooled in the same defensive discretion that Henman cultivates so assiduously.''

As you could tell by the big words, that wasn't even one of the notorious English tabloids but one of the respected newspapers.

There are two points to be made about this.

First, the newspapers there ought to lighten up because Henman is the best thing to happen to English tennis in decades. He's on the verge of a top-10 world ranking, and failed to become the first Englishman in 60 years to reach the Wimbledon final only because the eventual winner got in the way.

Second, the newspapers there ought to lighten up because their wish for a more flamboyant Henman is having exactly zero effect.

``I wouldn't say it's a popular pastime of mine, to read the English press,'' he said, coming dangerously close to cracking a grin. ``Everybody's entitled to their opinion.

``If they say I'm not flamboyant enough, fine. But I'm sure they'd much rather I play the kind of tennis I did at Wimbledon than be flamboyant and play poorly. At the end of the day, I'm not acting out on the court, what you see is what you get.''

Apparently, Henman has been this way since he took up tennis at age 3, grandson of Wimbledon player Henry Billington. They talk about his early maturity, single-mindedness and fundamental soundness on the court.

An early mentor is quoted saying, ``Tim's best shot has always been his head.''

That's been true here at the Los Angeles stop on the ATP Tour, where, after three weeks' vacation following Wimbledon, Henman is beginning his hard-court preparation for the Aug. 31-Sept. 13 U.S. Open.

In the second round, Henman faced Jeff Tarango, one of the flightier personalities on the tour. Tarango snapped a racket over his knee and bickered with the chair umpire throughout the match. Henman kept his head down and won in two sets.

Friday, it was Henman who suffered the potentially critical bad line call. If he were Tarango, he'd still be whining about it.

He led 5-4 and 40-30 with Black serving in the first set. The first serve landed a foot long but was ruled good. An ace. Worst call of the tournament. Deuce.

Henman held his arms out and quietly asked the umpire to overrule the linesman. Nothing doing. So Henman shook his head, turned and got ready for the next serve.

The tournament's second seed wound up losing the set to the seventh-seeded Black, a former USC star who hits two-handed on both sides, but controlled the rest of the match, closing it out with his 19th ace.

When Henman is in the groove, his first serve, surprisingly strong for a 6-foot-1, 155-pounder, and his hard, flat groundstrokes are too much for anybody. When he isn't in the groove, you might notice a mild four-letter word, but only if you read lips.

``I don't think it's really in my nature (to complain),'' he said. ``I play pretty aggressive tennis, but most of the time I'm in control of my emotions. If I'm shouting and screaming, I'm probably not going to concentrate on the job at hand.

``Here and there, you have days when you're hitting the ball poorly, and you're entitled to a few bad days mentally. But they've been few and far between.''

Yes, once, he did lose it on the court. He slugged a ball in anger during a Wimbledon doubles match in 1995, accidentally bopping a ballgirl on the head, and was disqualified. But that is likely to go down as the single moment of insanity in a career of calculated dullness.

Think Pete Sampras is quiet, unshakeable, even-tempered? Well, compared to Tim Henman, Sampras is John McEnroe.