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Timothy "Tim" Henman, OBE (born September 6, 1974 in Oxford,
England) is an English tennis player. He is the first British player since
Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Men's
Singles Championship, and is regarded by his fans (whose devotion is known
as "Henmania") as the UK's only hope of winning the tournament,
a feat last achieved by Fred Perry in 1936.
Early Life
Henman comes from a sporting family: his father was adept
at various sports, including tennis. His grandfather and great-grandfather
also competed at Wimbledon. Henman supports Oxford United Football Club and
is a keen golfer.
Between the ages of 10 and 17 he was a member of the David
Lloyd Slater Squad, where he trained alongside a number of other young British
tennis hopefuls.
While still at school, Henman was diagnosed with Osteochondritis,
a bone disease (one form of Chondritis). However, he kept playing tennis,
and in 1992 won the National Junior titles in singles and doubles, deciding
to join the professional tour in 1993.
Professional career
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 fondly known to 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 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 over 30, some British fans still believe
Henman will eventually become the first British player in almost 70 years
to win the Wimbledon Men's Singles title.
Henman was created an OBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours
List.
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