Tim Henman

Professional career

Image:Tim Henman Wimbledon 2005 1.jpg

He climbed up the ranks very quickly: in 1994, he was among the top 200 players in the world; by 1995, among the top 100; and by 1996, he had made it into the top 30 and won a medal at the Atlanta Olympics. He was the UK's highest ranked player that year, and won the Most Improved Player trophy at the ATP awards. He was subsequently elected to the ATP Tour Player Council and went on to win his first championship in January 1997. In March of that year, he underwent surgery on his elbow which kept him out of action for two months.

In 1998, the year in which he reached Wimbledon's semi-finals for the first time, he was ranked as one of the top 10 ATP players. In 1999, Henman married his long-term girlfriend, TV producer Lucy Heald.

"Tiger Tim" - as he is known to the British tabloids and Wimbledon diehards (many of whom assemble on Henman Hill, unofficially named for their hero) - has come tantalisingly close to reaching the final on a number of occasions, bowing out during the semi-final in 1998, 1999, 2001 (when just two points from victory at one point) and 2002. In 2000 he reached the fourth round and in 1996, 1997, 2003 and 2004 he was ousted during the quarter-finals.

One of the tournaments he has been most successful in is Queen's Club. He reached the final in 1999, where he lost to Pete Sampras, and went on to reach the final again in 2001 and 2002, where both times he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

Until 2004 he had never progressed beyond the fourth round of any grand slam except Wimbledon. However, he finally won a fourth round match at the French Open at the 2004 championships. His run finally came to an end in the semi-finals, where he was beaten by the Argentine Guillermo Coria after winning the first set, the first that the Argentine had lost during the championships.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics tennis event, Henman was seeded fourth and expected to do well, but lost in the first round. However, in the 2004 US Open held soon afterwards he reached the semi-finals for the first time in his career, before losing in straight sets to Roger Federer. ] In 2005, he lost in straight sets to Nikolay Davydenko in the third round of the Australian Open. This was considered a great disappointment, given his improved results at Grand Slams in the previous year. He went out in the second round at both the French Open and Wimbledon. In France, he lost in four sets to Luis Horna. At Wimbledon, he lost in five sets to Dmitry Tursunov after being 2-1 up; he narrowly won his first round match also in five sets, having been 2-0 down. At the US Open he lost in straight sets in the first round to Fernando Verdasco.

Even though he is now 31 and suffers from chronic back problems, some British fans still hope Henman will eventually become the first British player in almost 70 years to win the Wimbledon Men's Singles title. It now seems more likely, however that Henman will never conquer his everest, and will retire as the 'nearly man' of modern tennis. Almost, but never quite good enough.

Henman ended an eight match losing streak against Lleyton Hewitt on March 25th 2006, with a 7-6 6-3 victory at the Nasdaq-100 event in Miami.

Henman was created an OBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours List.

Categories: 1974 births | Living people | Olympic tennis players of Great Britain | British tennis players | Natives of Oxfordshire | Old Reedonians | Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics | Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics | Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics | Old Dragons | Officers of the British Empire