Tim Henman

Tim Henman had a family background in tennis, his grandfather, grandmother and great-grandmother all played at the Wimbledon championships. He won national junior singles and doubles titles in 1992 and stepped up to join the professional tour the following year. Henman rose steadily in the rankings reaching the top hundred in 1995. Also in 1995 he achieved the unwanted distinction of being the first player ever to be disqualified from the Wimbledon tournament when, in a flash of anger, he struck a loose ball that hit a ball girl in the face.

Henman won the first of his ten ATP singles title in 1997 but would never reach the final of a grand slam event. Four times a semi-finalist at Wimbledon and once at both the French and US Opens, he was a fixture in the top twenty of the world rankings for the best part of a decade. Henman’s career coincided with the introduction of giant television screens on the Wimbledon grounds and the interest generated by his matches led to the area around these screens being affectionately known as “Henman Hill”.

Seen primarily as a singles player he still won four ATP doubles titles to add the Olympic silver he won in 1996. Henman retired in September 2007 after a Davis Cup match against Croatia