EVERY LOSER WINS

He may be a bit crap when it comes to winning Wimbledon but Tim Henman is a smashing dad says Matt Butler.

Tim Henman has just returned from slogging his guts out on the practice court. His shoulder is holding up well, and his second serve is showing some satisfying sting. But his daughter couldn’t care less. She doesn’t give a monkey’s that her dad is in the world top ten. She yawns when he speaks about his renewed aggression and focus on the court. And if he ever fulfils his potential and wins a Grand Slam tournament, she will probably shrug and go back to watching TV.

Henman freely admits that whether he has wiped the court with a no-hoper or lost a marathon five-setter after being two sets up, Rosie, who turns two in October, always has more important things on her mind – like her next meal. But the British number one doesn’t mind that Rosie isn’t into tennis – in fact, it suits Henman just fine. He gets enough grief from the Union Jack hat-wearing hordes that ask him if he is ever going to win Wimbledon without having yet another expert to come home to. “Having a family and a life away from the court is a good way of keeping things in balance,” he says. “Whenever I get up in the morning or I get back in the evening, it’s a great distraction to have. It’s a good way, to a certain extent, of being able to switch off from what you have been doing throughout the day and from what you are focussing on.”

He says having a daughter has even made him into a better player. The arrival of Rosie on the scene – and the associate distractions that come with a new baby – have helped the perennial ‘nearly man’ of British tennis become more relaxed about on-court matters, and therefore win more matches.

In the past he tended to let the thought of winning or losing completely consume him during tournaments. But he has learned to concentrate on the way he is playing, rather than the outcome of matches. And the change in attitude is borne out by his results on tour.
He won his first Masters Series at the end of last year, before making it to the semi-finals of the French Open in May – becoming the first Brit to make it that far since Rick Astley was in the charts. And, of course, there is Wimbledon. Despite every year seeming a disappointment to British fans – especially seeing as the press annually build up his hopes to the extent they trumpet desperate headlines such as ‘the Tim has come’ – Henman insists his performances have been nothing to be ashamed of. And to a certain extent he is right. He is the only player apart from Pete Sampras to have made it to the second week at SW19 for five years running. And the four semi-finals in five attempts speak for themselves.
“My attitude has definitely changed in the last six or seven months,” he says. “Whether becoming a dad has made a difference to my game, or winning my first Masters competition, or even if it’s through joining up with Paul Annacone that’s done it, it’s difficult to put my finger on it. Having a daughter has had an impact on my game, because I’m a lot more relaxed about things. In the past I relied far too much on winning or losing, and I put a lot of pressure on myself. People have asked me about the disappointment of my semi-final losses but, apart from the match against Goran Ivanesivic in 2002 – which was pretty hard to swallow – the other ones I have no complaints about. Everyone was very much ‘were you locked up in a  room and didn’t come out?’ but by the next morning I was arranging where I was going to go and play golf or something. Sure I was disappointed that I wasn’t getting ready for Wimbledon finals, but I lost to better players on those days.”

When Rosie was born, on October 19 2002, Henman was not playing because of a shoulder injury, so he was able to be with his wife and daughter for the first four months of her life. But since then the very nature of Henman’s job means he spends a lot of time away from home for much of the year. But he has got around that by taking them both on tour whenever Lucy can get time off work, and the trio are a regular sighting in players’ restaurants around the world. One journalist noted at a tournament in Miami earlier this year that they looked the picture of familial bliss, and said: “It was really nice to see. Rosie seemed to have a strong personality of her own, and really let her dad know what she wanted.”