Henman out of Wimbledon

[Man of Harveys]

I like Tim a lot too - I can remember when some useless dork like Andrew Castle or John Lloyd getting through to the second round was enough to get the church bells ringing, so in comparison he's been fantastic for British tennis - but jeez could he be frustrating: an awful lot of unforced errors. With better coaching, plus just a bit more fire in the belly, he could have gone all the way. We'll miss him when he's gone.

 

[larus]

I respectfully disagree. I thought Henman was a VERY gritty player who frequently won matches he had no right to.

In that Ivanisavic match, Henman simply had no answer to his opponents serve, and made too many first serve errors of his own. Nowt to do with grit - he was never in the game after the first set...

If it's the semi-final that he lost, he had Ivanisavic on the ropes in the fourth set when the rain came and the game went to the next day. Ivanisavic was refreshed and it all just worked for him.

If it hadn't been for the rain, he would have won that semi, of that I am convinced.

I do believe that he lacked that real steel and self-belief - otherwise he would have been a real challenger for the grand-slams.

The abuse that he gets becuase he's never won a grand-slam is incredulous really. He was our most successful players for a long time, and seems to be a normal guy. Guess he lacks the 'bad-boy/excitement' tag that endears people to the likes of Alex Higgins/George Best/Gazza.

 

[Simster]

You're right. I'm thinking of a different game.

I now remember - wasn't it going with serve (with Ivanisevic merely clinging on) and with Henman 2-1 up and ON FIRE?

 

[Les Biehn]

Whenever I have seen him interviewed he always comes across as a nice guy with a decent sense of human.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

You're right. I'm thinking of a different game.

I now remember - wasn't it going with serve (with Ivanisevic merely clinging on) and with Henman 2-1 up and ON FIRE?

He'd just gone 2 sets to one up, having taken the 3rd set 6-0, and had a break point in the 4th when the rain came. IIRC.

Oh what could have been..........



















............a comprehensive defeat to Pat Rafter in the final probably.

 

[Braders]

quarter or semi finals i reckon - just as people start to believe it's his year!!!

 

[Icy Gull]

Henman's ability to win a set 6-0 or 6-1 and then go and lose the next one 6-0 or 6-1 is proof enough to me that he had the tools just not the mental strength to go a complete game against top players in games like Wimbledon semi finals. His unforced errors and inabilty to maintain a high standard (that he was definitely capable of ability wise) for 5 sets had me wanting to throw things at him and the telly. Every year I used to think it would be his year and every year in the semi's he went out with a whimper.

 

[Les Biehn]

But thats the psychology of the game rather than grit and determination Icy. I used to play a lot of Tennis, I was fairly decent but my main attribute was that I never gave up. However I used to choke on big points, double faulting and the like but this wasn't because I wasn't putting my all in.

I think if anything he cared to much.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Very difficult for a nation to accept and cherish a characterless, professional millionaire. There's nothing sellable in his prose or antics or mishaps. If he'd been caught rooting some 19-year old Ruskie, snorting a cheeky line from her scraped-clean buttocks before his fast-paced "quarter"-final, or just beaten his Princess Di-ish wife, then we could have seen his fault and embraced him with forgiveness as goodness spread from his heart to trophy cabinet.
Instead, he's a little bit good at something, never the cream of the crop, or an evil-fisted abuser of justice, therefore a wealthy one of us. *yawn*

 

[Les Biehn]

Very difficult for a nation to accept and cherish a characterless, professional millionaire. There's nothing sellable in his prose or antics or mishaps. If he'd been caught rooting some 19-year old Ruskie, snorting a cheeky line from her scraped-clean buttocks before his fast-paced "quarter"-final, or just beaten his Princess Di-ish wife, then we could have seen his fault and embraced him with forgiveness as goodness spread from his heart to trophy cabinet.
Instead, he's a little bit good at something, never the cream of the crop, or an evil-fisted abuser of justice, therefore a wealthy one of us. *yawn*

But does that mean he deserves all the grief. Also lets be honest, he was 4th best in the world at an internationally popular sport, so is he really just like one of us. Not saying he is better than the rest of us, but his achievements are fairly unique.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Henman is a tart. FACT !

a very rich tart, with a very attractive wife. FACT

 

[Lethargic]

A typical British (or English if you prefer) sportsman probably had the skill and ability but too much of a nice man to have the real killer instinct - seems typical in this country.
I hope he does well but some how I think he has missed the bus.

 

[Meade's Ball]

But does that mean he deserves all the grief. Also lets be honest, he was 4th best in the world at an internationally popular sport, so is he really just like one of us. Not saying he is better than the rest of us, but his achievements are fairly unique.

I think he deserves neither hatred or pride.
And he's one of us in that there's very little to remember. He's an inartistic inhabitant of the middle ground. A specialist in adequacy and mediocrity and under-achievement. Just as we are. And also as we are the chapters to his life are interesting just to him, so it's difficult to be chilled or pleased with his public performances.
I don't think he should be jeered, but then isn't the negative must of English culture to verbally frown at almost any person's experience or success? Like any leaver on Big Brother comfortably villainised and mocked by crowds, or how we find a weakness in the opposition at football matches, happiest when we see someone faint or get struck by a ball in the "enemy"'s throng?

 

[Tooting Gull]

I agree with those who reckon Timmy gets some unfair stick. The bizarre thing is where the 'choker/bottler' tag has come from. I've watched plenty of matches where he has emerged winning from a right scrap.

The four semi-finals he lost were to Sampras twice (hardly a disgrace), Hewitt (who was world No1 at the time) and Ivanisevic, a two-time finalist who was also ordained by God to win that year - and even then it was the rain break that did for him.

Henman is also a rare example of an upper-middle class who actually does have some fire in his belly, he could easily have gone off to be a lawyer and instead got to No4 in the world in a highly competitive individual sport.

 

[Strike]

Have to agree with most of the comments here. Much admire Henman a lot more than say John Terry. Anyway sad to hear that Eastbourne could be losing its tennis tournament.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I think the thing that grates with many people about Henman is that, while he was a very GOOD tennis player, he never had the ability to be a great, a fact which was plainly clear to most rational watchers.

He was never going to be a Grand Slam final winner, or even a regular finalist, yet the British media talked about him every Wimbledon like he was a potential winner. The hype they devoted to him was totally out of proportion to his talent.

Nobody said he was shit, but equally, it was painfully obvious to the non-Timmy- devotees, that he never had the ability or the mindset to take that extra step up that makes a good player great.

Plus the sight of all those Henriettas and Ginnys waving their Union Jack flags and squealing "Come on Tim" incessantly always wound me right up. Harsh, but fair IMHO.