There will be no Tim Henman at this year's Wimbledon. We look at why the tournament will be worse off without him.
There will be no Tim Henman at Wimbledon. We look at why the tournament will miss him
There will be something missing when the famous Wimbledon gates are thrown open this year.
No more cries of 'C'mon Tim,' no more limp-fisted celebrations. No more totally unrealistic expectations. No more Tim Henman.
For the first time in more than a decade Henman will not be wielding a racket in anger at SW19.
But we will miss Henman the player at Wimbledon.
We will miss the early round struggles against players he should have beaten easily. We will miss the way in which he tortured the home crowd with the inconsistency of his performances. The missed serves, the brilliant volleying, the athletic movement, the dodgy groundstrokes, the five-set thrillers.
It was Joni Mitchell who sang 'You don't know what you've got till its gone' and even with Andy Murray posing a considerable home threat the suspicion is that Wimbledon without Henman will be slightly less colourful.
From the day back in 1995 when he whacked a ball in anger during a doubles match and was disqualified when it struck a ball girl, Henman never failed to dominate the headlines.
There was his first round win over Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, then world number five, back in 1996 which kick-started his career.
There were eight quarter-finals in all and four semi-finals, two of which pitched him against the legendary Pete Sampras.
He could hardly be criticised for losing to the American, who dominated tennis for so long and was virtually unplayable at times in the latter rounds at Wimbledon.
Sleepless
Henman lost also to Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, who went on to lift the trophy, and to Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
He must still have sleepless nights recalling that match, which was in his grasp until the rain came to save the big-serving Croat.
Still, even then Henman did us a favour because the story of Ivanisevic, as a wild card entry in the autumn of his career, reaching the final and beating Pat Rafter on 'People's Monday' remains one of the greatest tales in the whole of sport.
Henman often was categorised as a choker when he was defeated, even by Sampras. That was unfair.
He was not just a tennis player who mobilised the entire nation for two weeks every summer in an outpouring of Wimbledon emotion.
Henman reached number four in the world, claimed 11 career titles and was good enough to reach the semi-finals at the French and US Opens as well as his four at Wimbledon.
Indisputably, he was the best British man to wield a racket since Fred Perry back in the 1930s.
To truly appreciate the Henman phenomenon you had to be on Centre Court in 1997 to witness his 'People's Sunday' triumph against Dutchman Paul Haarhuis.
Henman won 14-12 in the fifth set, but seldom can a British crowd have assisted their man in any sport in such partisan and affectionate fashion.
Yet the Wimbledon crown proved beyond his reach.
"Am I disappointed I didn't win it?" Henman asked himself when he retired last year. "Yes I am, but this is as good as I could have been, so I don't have too many doubts.
"I played some of my best tennis at Wimbledon. I'll always be proud of that."
