I WILL MISS TIM

I was never a part of the "Henmania", yet there was something about Tim Henmen that will make me miss him. His stats weren't outrageous, grabbing attention, yet they were not meaningless. They told a story about a gentleman and his hard work to achieve his dream while carrying the pressure from a whole nation on his back.

Henman was a player out of fashion. His game was not forged in the heat of a modern foundry, but stitched together by some gentleman tailor, all nice, quaint lines, no whiff of power, no scent of arrogance, just simplicity. You’d think he’d just borrowed a racquet from Fred Perry’s statue near the front gates at Wimbledon and arrived ready to play. One might say that some days he appeared a poet at a convention of rap artists.

Maybe Henmen was one of the last from the dying species of serve and volley, maybe he seemed to have jumped a few years ahead.But that guy made his mark and he will be remembered not just by me, not just by England but a large mass of tennis lovers. It is enough.