WIMBLEDON, England - Tennis in Britain is a tabloid headline that shrieks, "Sex and Strawberries."

It's a summer diversion in a country where rain prevails and going to the pub ranks as the No. 1 leisure activity.

And it's a sport the British watch well and often play badly.

Which brings us to Jane O'Donoghue and Tim Henman, two British players on display yesterday at Wimbledon.

O'Donoghue, ranked No. 344 in the world, made her Wimbledon debut on Centre Court against reigning two-time champion Venus Williams.

O'Donoghue got a nice cheer. She warmed up. And then, unfortunately, the match began.

When did she sense trouble?

"Well, the first service game," O'Donoghue said. "I thought, 'I'll make her serve first, put a bit of pressure on.' She came out and nearly did four aces, so she was quite loose. Then I realized, 'I've got a mountain to climb here.' "

Williams won, 6-1, 6-1.

At the other extreme was Henman, the No. 4 seed and national hope, the man most likely to end a long championship drought and become Wimbledon's first British men's winner since 1936.

Or, at least, that's supposed to be the plot every year.

It hasn't happened yet.

Still, hope flowed as Henman walked on to Court 1 and British flags were unfurled. Up in the picnic area, now known as Henman Hill, fans gathered by a giant television screen to watch.

And Henman won, beating a qualifier named Jean-Francois Bachelot of France, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.

He doesn't know if the name Henman Hill will stick, but said, "To have a hill named after you is pretty special."

Still, after years of dealing with pressure, he'd rather have the championship.

"Whether people say I'm going to win or whether they say I'm not going to win, it doesn't really have any effect," he said. "Because I've got to go out and prove to myself what I can do on the court."

It's hard to describe what it means to be British and attempt to win Wimbledon, to have a nation's expectations heaped on one's shoulders, even shoulders as slight as Henman's.

The last British singles champ was Virginia Wade in 1977, a year that marked Queen Elizabeth II's 25th anniversary on the throne.

This year marks the queen's 50th anniversary, and there are high hopes for the British at Wimbledon.

"The country is desperate for a British player to do well in the women's game," O'Donoghue said.

There are only four British players left at Wimbledon after the first round, Elena Baltacha, Henman, Barry Cowan and Greg Rusedski.

The British system isn't exactly producing a lot of stars.

"If you are good enough, you will come through any system," said O'Donoghue, who said she played five hours a week until she was 16, while others her age around the world played 20 hours weekly year-round.

"If you add up over six years, that's why I'm a couple of years behind," she said.

Still, the British live in hope.

They cheer for Rusedski, who was born in Canada.

And they roar for Henman, a three-time semifinalist.

But the British are, if nothing, realists. The fans cheer, but there is a sense they know what's coming late in the tournament.

The British are good at a lot of things. Winning Wimbledon, though, isn't one of them.