Tim Henman - The Most Entertaining Tennis Player in the last Decade
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by user Alex Holowczak
Centre Court at Wimbledon saw a familiar sight yesterday.
Tim Henman played Carlos Moya in the First Round of Wimbledon. Henman, a man that had once reached 6 Grand Slam Semi Finals, including 4 at Wimbledon, entered Wimbledon at World Number 88. He had only had two main tour wins all season. His grass court form was very poor, he only won one match in two tournaments over the previous two weeks.
Wimbledon is a great place. British fans so rarely had a winner. Henman had carried the hopes of the nation for so long, and with Murray out of the tournament, Henman was now the main hope once again. The 2 year old was once more Britain's best hope of a home winner.
He opened well against Moya. He won the opening set 6-3, and things seemed to be going excellently. After an hour's break for rain, Moya dominated. He won two sets in a row to lead by 2 sets to 1. Henman sparked hopes of a revival in the next set, winning 6-2 to send the match to a decider.
The deciding set will live long in the memory. Henman trailed 2-4 and 15-40, about to go down two breaks. But the fans roared Henman on. He managed to survive that game, and then broke Moya. He led 5-4. The tenth game was a classic. Henman had 4 match points, but Moya held serve somehow to stay alive at 5-5. With the game over, the match was pulled, at twenty past nine British Summer Time, after almost three hours play.
Today, the two resumed after Amelie Mauresmo won her game at a canter. Basically another set of tennis was played, the score progressed to 11-11. We don't have fifth set tiebreaks over here, you see. Henman led 12-11, and in the twentyfourth game of the set, Moya served a double fault on match point, to give Henman the win. After almost four hours, Henman had been victorious, in what will be the most remembered match at Wimbledon this year.
It's great that Henman won a game again. Over the last 12 years, British fans have cheered on Henman. "Come on Tim!" has become probably one of the most common phrases in British summer sport - and the most recognisable. Many fans have memories of his battles with Pete Sampras (he should have won one of his Semis).
Most memorably to his three-day Semi against Goran Ivanesevic in 2001. Henman was dominating at the end of the first day, when the match got pulled for bad light, controversially. Ivansevic recovered and won the tournament, beating Pat Rafter 9-7 in the Final on the Monday.
Tim Henman never seems to do things the easy way. Tomorrow, Henman plays another Spanish claycourter, whose surname is Lopez, I forget the rest... But the point is, it will be a difficult match for him to win.
Henman is the last true grass-court player, that is the last player to play the old style of serve-volley. The grass is now too good for that to work anymore, so his greatest strength is nullified. Even now, he is probably the best volleyer in the world.
He has been infuriating to watch for a decade, but he has been the most entertaining. So often the bridesmaid, never the bride.
So much was the demand to see him, Wimbledon opened up a grassy hill for people to watch on a big screen. It has become colloquially known as "Henman Hill".
He will never be forgotten, and lets hope he has a good run this year. Just for one last time.
