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Originally posted by wideawakeBut that is not his fault. He was our best tennis player in decades, was consistently in or around the top ten for a good part of his career, won a number of tournaments, and won £millions. I think he can be pretty happy with his career.
henman the most overated british sportsman of our day! even worse than christian daily!
Unfortunatley as he was only very good, rather than the best in the world he is seen as a failure by the British public who generally do not know much about tennis apart from a couple of weeks in July. He was a grass court serve and volley player good enough to get to the semi's of the French Open on clay (i.e. the one Federer can't win), and to be fair, if it was not for a very unfortunate rain delay he would have got to the final and Wimbledon and probably beaten Rafter.
Its just like the popular media wanted to own the cricketers when they won the Ashes, or how they are suddenly interested in motorsport now Hamilton looks like a winner. The way I look at it is that the media is little more than a bunch of Man U supporting glory hunters waiting to moan about how the world has come to an end as their team only finished second in the league
In 2001 at Wimbledon, with 16 guys left in the singles championship, Roger Federer beat Pete Sampras in a fantastic five set match.
This was the "changing of the guard" - as Sampras handed over to the Federer era.
Although the match is well known as a classic, it is mostly forgotten that Federer went on to lose in the quarter finals to a British guy called Tim Henman.
When Henman won the Paris Masters title in 2003, he needed to get through both Federer and Andy Roddick, as well as Davydenko, Grosjean and Gustavo Kuerten. This is not a list of names that can be beaten in five consecutive matches by any old tennis player.
I play tennis most days of the week at my club and and get a bit awestruck when watching our top players competing against other clubs.
Sometimes I wonder who could be better than these guys, they just seem incredibly good - surely they must be some of the best in the country, or at least be able to compete at any level?
Then you catch a match where your guy plays a guy who represents his county and you see him brought low. And you know that those county guys get whopped by the national level guys just as hard.
In turn, most of those national players get a severe beating when they play against someone playing on the tennis satellite tours - the qualifying events for players whose world ranking isn't quite high enough to be allowed to enter a main ATP tour event automatically.
And for a period of about 10 years - Henman was not only the top of the whole tree in Britain - entered automatically into any damn tournament he fancied - he was better than almost everyone in the world, except for a half dozen or so players!
Imagine what he could have achieved if he'd only been a better player.
Anyway, if you live in London, do have a visit of my tennis site...
http://www.londontennis.co.uk
I remember Sue Barker talking to someone (I think Boris Becker) about Henman's chances in a 1/4 final a few years back & Becker said something like "Henman is known as the choker" at which point both realised that was very un-BBc & rapidly changed the subject!
So there you have it. On the circuit it's Henman the choker!
Sounds more WWF than ATP but still...
Originally posted by ChrisHenman has certainly played at the top level of the game for several years now. However, he seems to come up short in winning major tourneys consistently.
In 2001 at Wimbledon, with 16 guys left in the singles championship, Roger Federer beat Pete Sampras in a fantastic five set match.
This was the "changing of the guard" - as Sampras handed over to the Federer era.
Although the match is well known as a classic, it is mostly forgotten that Federer went on to lose in the quarter finals to a British guy call ...[text shortened]... if you live in London, do have a visit of my tennis site...
http://www.londontennis.co.uk
I do enjoy watching him play though!!! More so than the baseline bashers so prevalent these days.
Originally posted by SquelchbelchHe does seem to tighten up when the pressure is on and drop those key points which can swing the match one way or another. Time and time again. Not sure if it's a physical or mental issue for him.
I remember Sue Barker talking to someone (I think Boris Becker) about Henman's chances in a 1/4 final a few years back & Becker said something like "Henman is known as the choker" at which point both realised that was very un-BBc & rapidly changed the subject!
So there you have it. On the circuit it's Henman the choker!
Sounds more WWF than ATP but still...