THE TRAILS OF AN ENGLISHMAN

Being Tim Henman: a blessing and a curse

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

For Kermit the Frog, it wasn’t easy being green. And for Tim Henman, it certainly isn’t easy being British.

From even before the very first time Tim Henman’s name was penciled into a tennis draw, the 26-year-old Oxfordshire native has been living with the blessing and the curse of being the pride and joy of the British Empire – at least in tennis terms. In a nation that thinks of tennis as a titanic sport, Henman is the only homegrown offering available, although the country was quick to jump on the Greg Rusedski bandwagon when he chose British citizenship in the mid-90’s over his Canadian ties from birth.

What Britain wants most of all is a Wimbledon champion in its midst and their hopes are pinned on Henman. The last British man to reign over Centre Court was Fred Perry, who won the last of three consecutive singles trophies at the All-England Club in 1936. The last British man to even venture to the final was Bunny Austin, who fell to Don Budge in 1938.

Okay, so it’s been 65 years since a local chap has done the deed at Wimbledon, is that any reason to make Henman bear the brunt of a whole nation’s desires? It’s not that people aren’t well intentioned, but there are two distinct problems with their expectations – the pressure they put Henman under to succeed is clearly more than he can handle and while he is almost Wimbledon champion material, he just falls short of the mark.

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID …
If you think I’m being cruel and unjust, let’s just review Henman’s results to date. Armed with a serve-and-volley game that is very pleasant to the eye, Henman nevertheless is the type of player that comes close, but no cigar. His best Grand Slam efforts have been on his beloved grass – three semifinal showings and two quarterfinal berths at Wimbledon. At the other Grand Slams, Henman has never ventured past the round-of-16. In the past six years, Henman has hoisted seven winner’s trophies and was a losing finalist 12 times. And in that statistic, he has only reached the final of one of the ATP’s nine upper echelon Tennis Masters Series event at Cincinnati last year where he lost to Thomas Enqvist.
Like it or not, this is not the career of a Grand Slam champion.

Despite all the evidence that their expectation were too lofty, British tennis fans were feverishly in Henman’s corner as he rode the road to the ’01 Wimbledon semifinals. “Henmania” was in full force – British papers ran pages of coverage on the tennis star, fans donned t-shirts emblazoned with “C’mon Tiger Tim.” But in the end, Henman wasn’t very tiger-like at all. He just doesn’t seem to have that internal instinct to stalk his prey and perform the final pounce. In the end, he couldn’t prevail over the Cinderella story of eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic, who won their three-hour final that stretched over 45 hours long.

The next day, the British tabloids were quick to bring Henman down off of the pedestal they had put him on with painfully screeching headlines such as “Why oh why do we always lose?”

Even the respectable broadsheets were bemoaning Henman’s fate. In the Guardian, Frank Keating put the Henman loss in perspective with a F. Scott Fitzgerald quote – “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.”

Certainly, a number of the British media have helped intensify this difficult situation for Henman. In one respect, they have so insulated him that on certain occasions, Henman has bristled when reporters other than the few British regulars have dared to ask him questions in press conferences. An example of this occurred when the U.S. Davis Cup squad defeated Britain 3-2 in a spectacular first round tie at Birmingham, England in April 1999. Famed Boston Globe writer Bud Collins and myself were the only American media representatives present at the tie and if you would have seen the look Henman gave us when we posed questions to him after he lost the first match to Jim Courier, it would have sent shivers down your spine. Unwilling to be daunted, Bud and I asked away anyway and Henman’s displeasure at the situation was clearly visible.

A MORE RELAXED MAN
On the flipside, it is very interesting to note that a very different Henman surfaces when the usual corps of British media aren’t present. Following Wimbledon, most of the British media take their summer holidays and none of the regulars travel the American hardcourt season leading into the U.S. Open. Undoubtedly, there were more than a few British scribes who were unhappy to not be on the road in the summer of 2000 when Henman reached the Cincinnati finals as well as the Indianapolis semifinals the following week. But for the rest of us, we were able to see a more relaxed Henman, a smiling Henman that didn’t seem to be bearing the normal pressure of having the constant focus of attention aimed at him. Henman even laughingly agreed with me when I suggested that his fortune seems better when the British media stay home, suggesting he might ask the reporters to stay home more often.

There’s no denying that this year seemed to be Henman’s best shot at a Wimbledon trophy, but he couldn’t crack the semifinal level he had reached twice in the past. At this point, I wouldn’t wager a bet on him to be a Grand Slam champion during his career. But that doesn’t mean that he won’t retire having had a more than respectable career. What Henman needs most of all is for the British tennis aristocracy, not to mention the British public, to pull back and stop putting pressure on their native son. By doing so they will leave Henman with the right impression – that it’s been a blessing to be the best British tennis player in years and not a curse because he let people down.