Tim Henman

Tim Henman, Order of the British Empire (born
September 6, 1974 in Oxford, England) is a United
Kingdom tennis player.
He is the first British player since Roger TaylorRoger Taylor in the 1970s to reach
the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Men's Singles
Championship, and is regarded by his fans (whose
devotion is known as "Henmania") as the UK's only
hope of winning the tournament, a feat last
achieved by Fred Perry in 1936.



==Early Life==
Henman comes from a sporting family: his father
was adept at various sports, including tennis. His
grandfather and great-grandfather also competed at
Wimbledon. Henman supports Oxford United Football Club.

Between the ages of 10 and 17 he was a member of
the David Lloyd Slater Squad, where he trained
alongside a number of other young British tennis
hopefuls.

While still at school, Henman was diagnosed with
Osteochondritis, a bone disease (one form of
Chondritis). However, he kept playing tennis, and
in 1992 won the National Junior titles in singles
and doubles, deciding to join the professional
tour in 1993.


==Professional career==
He climbed up the ranks very quickly: in 1994, he
was among the top 200 players in the world; by
1995, among the top 100; and by 1996, he had made
it into the top 30 and won a medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He was the UK's
highest ranked player that year, and won the Most
Improved Player trophy at the ATP awards. He was
subsequently elected to the ATP Tour Player
Council and went on to win his first championship
in January 1997. In March of that year, he
underwent surgery on his elbow which kept him out
of action for two months.

In 1998, the year in which he reached Wimbledon's
semi-finals for the first time, he was ranked as
one of the top 10 ATP players. In 1999, Henman
married his long-term girlfriend, TV producer Lucy
Heald.

"Tiger Tim" - as he is fondly known to British tabloids and Wimbledon diehards
(many of whom assemble on Henman Hill,
unofficially named for their hero) - has come
tantalisingly close to reaching the final on a
number of occasions, bowing out during the
semi-final in 1998, 1999, 2001 (when just two
points from victory at one point) and 2002. In
2000 he reached the fourth round and in 2003 and
2004 he was ousted during the quarter-finals.

One of the tournaments he has been most successful
in is Queen's Club. He reached the final in 1999,
where he lost to Pete Sampras, and went on to
reach the final again in 2001 and 2002, where both
times he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

Until 2004 he had never progressed beyond the
fourth round of any grand slam except Wimbledon.
However, he finally won a fourth round match at
the French Open at the 2004 championships. His run
finally came to an end in the semi-finals, where
he was beaten by the Argentine Guillermo Coria
after winning the first set, the first that the
Argentine had lost during the championships.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics Tennis event, Henman was seeded
fourth and expected to do well, but lost in the
first round. However, in the 2004 US Open held soon afterwards he reached
the semi-finals for the first time in his career,
before losing in straight sets to Roger Federer.

In 2005, he lost in straight sets to Nikolay
Davydenko in the third round of the Australian
Open. This was considered a great disappointment,
given his improved results at Grand Slams in the
previous year. He went out in the second round at
both the French Open and Wimbledon. In France, he
lost in four sets to Luis Horna. At Wimbledon, he
lost in five sets to Dmitry Tursunov after being
2-1 up; he narrowly won his first round match also
in five sets, having been 2-0 down. At the US Open he lost in straight sets in
the first round to Fernando Verdasco.

Even though he is now over 30, some British fans
still believe Henman will eventually become the
first British player in almost 70 years to win the
Wimbledon Men's Singles title.

Henman was created an Order of the British
Empire in the 2003 New Year's Honours List.