麻豆社

British tennis icon Tim Henman spent 15 years at the top of his sport, is an Olympic medallist, made it to six grand-slam semi-finals and has a hill in SW19 named after him.

Now, Tim is in the midst of the Wimbledon fortnight and couldn’t be more excited. “It’s my favourite time of year. That was the case when I was playing, I always looked forward to Wimbledon, it was my favourite tournament and now I come at it from a slightly different angle”.

Nick Bright interviewed the tennis legend on ‘Under the Spotlight’ about his career and his time at Wimbledon. Here are five interesting facts we found out about Tim.

Tim first experienced Centre Court when his mum took him to Wimbledon when he was just six years old in 1981. Tim says he “saw Bjorn Borg play on Centre Court on the first Monday and that was where I made my one and only career decision”. It was then he decided he wanted to be a professional tennis player.

Centre Court at Wimbledon is a special place for Tim Henman

It would take another fifteen years before Tim had the opportunity to play on Centre Court himself, but it was worth the wait: “To have the opportunity to walk out on Centre Court and be a British player in front of a home crowd and beat the French Open champion it was an amazing start to my Centre Court life”.

As a young player he says he felt “massively excited and a little bit nervous” the first time he walked out on Centre Court. “It felt so familiar out there. To get out there and feel so comfortable and win in five sets. It was such an important start to my life on Centre Court.

“If I could have played my career on one court, it would have been Centre Court at Wimbledon. It’s the most special place to play. I felt so fortunate to have so many incredible experiences with that type of atmosphere”.

After playing tennis professionally for so long, does Tim still regularly find himself on the court? Well, not as often as you might think.

Tim spends a lot more time playing golf than tennis these days

“I’d say I’ve played [tennis] once this year and twice last year. I love the game and just don’t have any inclination to play it. I do tend to stand on a tennis court most of the time and say ‘wow, I could be playing golf now’.

“99% of the professional tennis I do not miss. I don’t miss the tournaments, the training, the travel, the discipline, the injury prevention. The final one percent is walking out onto Centre Court at Wimbledon and I think it’s inevitable you miss that because it’s the most special tournament and the most special place. That’s as good as it gets in sport.

These days his sporting outlets lie elsewhere. “I am a golf addict. I have always enjoyed the game. The honest answer is I’ve never wanted a real job. If I wasn’t playing tennis I would probably have tried my hand at golf”.

This year’s Wimbledon is going to be a special year for lots of reasons, not least because it’s Sue Barker’s 30th and final Wimbledon working in broadcast.

Tim Henman with Sue Barker at Wimbledon

But Tim’s relationship with Sue goes back much further. “I’ve known Sue forever, she used to collect me from school when I was 11” as Tim trained at the same tennis club that Sue played at.

Tim say’s Wimbledon is going to feel different after Sue retires: “She’s like an aunt to me; she’s just been amazing to work with. She is such a good friend, and we will miss her, she’s just brilliant at her job. She was a great player herself and she’s so good in so many different areas. She’s a tough one to follow”.

However, he has no plans to step into her shoes any time soon “That’s a proper job! I’ve told you; I don’t want a proper job!”

In 1995 Tim was disqualified from Wimbledon after accidentally hitting ball girl Caroline Hall. The next day he read the newspapers and the headline on the back page of The Sun said: ‘He hit is so hard it could have killed her’. It was such a ridiculous exaggeration.

Ball girl Caroline Hall and Tim after the incident

“I remember reading that and thinking two things – ‘I’ll never ever read the newspapers again while I am a professional tennis player’, and secondly, I thought ‘I better have some decent results otherwise this is going to be what I am remembered for’.

“Throughout my career and certainly at Wimbledon I did a really good job of not really focusing or worrying about what was going on around me. If anything, I just loved the atmosphere. Whether I was practicing or going out onto Centre Court, there was such a buzz”.

Tennis has always been part of Tim’s life and he picked up his first racket when he was just three years old. However, his family’s tennis pedigree goes back even further as two of his grandparents and his great-grandmother all played at Wimbledon.

Tim Henman's great-grandmother Ellen Stowell-Brown playing tennis in 1902

So, does Tim think tennis is part of his DNA? Well, not necessarily: “On one hand you could say ‘yes, it was in my blood’, on the other hand, I have two older brothers, they played tennis but didn’t want to pursue that. I think environment is so important in your upbringing.

“I was lucky enough to not only have opportunity but with two older brothers I had plenty of competition. We were always playing sport, my mum and dad played a lot of sport and still do. I was always grateful for that opportunity but I never thought about necessarily my parents or my grandparents or my great-grandmother – I played the game because I loved it”.

And tennis has carried on to the next generation of Henmans, although not in a professional capacity: All three of Tim’s daughters play and enjoy the game but he’s “pretty happy” than none of them want to play tennis professionally. He thinks Henman might be “the wrong surname” to have in British tennis as there would be a lot of expectation placed on their shoulders.

麻豆社 Radio 5 Live will be at the heart of Wimbledon this year, bringing you live commentary and expert analysis every day of the tournament.