Henman Calls Time on Career

Tim Henman today announced his retirement from tennis, confirming Britain's Davis Cup match fixture Croatia at Wimbledon next month in the Davis Cup would be his last match as a professional.

Henman, whose wife is pregnant with their third child, has won only three matches this year and has struggled to shake a series of niggles - most noticeably a persistent back problem which forced him to pull out of the New Haven tournament this week. He has always maintained he still enjoys playing and insisted both before and after this year's Wimbledon that he planned to keep playing for several years to come, but he confirmed today he was struggling physically after admitting as much for the first time on Tuesday.

"It's made my life a little bit harder, a little bit less enjoyable," said Henman of his back trouble. "And with our third child on the way, there's an even bigger incentive to be at home. It certainly gets harder and harder to be away from your family. It's not necessarily the end of things for me. It's a new beginning and I'd like to feel there's going to be a lot of new opportunities out there for me and lots of new things to explore. I'm looking forward to stepping away from things."

Despite failing to win a grand slam, Henman retires as the most successful British player since 'open' tennis began in 1968, having claimed 10 ATP Tour titles and one Masters Series win during a fourteen year career. At his peak he ranked as highly as fourth in the ATP world rankings, as well as reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals on four occasions, as well as the semi-finals of both the US and French Opens in 2004.