Tim Henman - Retirement

Retirement

Henman announced at a press conference on 23 August 2007 that he would retire from tennis after playing in the US Open and Britain's Davis Cup tie against Croatia in September 2007.

Henman defeated his rival Dmitry Tursunov (who had won five of their six previous matches ) in the first round of the US Open, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4, in what many had assumed would be his final Grand Slam match. He did in fact compete in his final Grand Slam match on 31 August 2007 and was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-7(2-7), 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 in the second round. Henman seemed slugglish compared to his first-round match and threw away serving for the first set.

Henman played his final match in the Davis Cup tie against Croatia on 22 September 2007. The doubles match with Jamie Murray was played on Court 1 at Wimbledon which they won, 4–6, 6–4, 7–6, 7–5. The match put Great Britain in an unassailable 3–0 lead and back in the World Group, with the doubles win being added to singles wins the previous day from Henman and Andy Murray. After the match Henman told Sue Barker in an interview on BBC Television and in front of the Court 1 crowd, "It's occasions like this and fans like this that I will miss so much".

At the time of his retirement, Henman had already committed to playing a Charity Exhibition at London's Royal Albert Hall during the Seniors Tennis Event The Blackrock Masters in December 2007. Henman's opponent was veteran Swede and former Wimbledon Champion Stefan Edberg, Tim won the pro-set 8–4.

Henman became part of the commentary team for the BBC coverage of the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and has remained there since.

Henman took part in a test event for the adoption of the centre court roof in May 2009 and played mixed doubles with Kim Clijsters against husband and wife team Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.