Tennis: Henman Starts to Act Tough

Tim Henman is getting nasty. Not John McEnroe nasty, but as nasty as a nice young Englishman can get.

He has cut down on giving interviews, he has slagged off the British press, telling us we're 'probably the worst media in the world', and has now told the Great Britain team captain Jeremy Bates that he no longer wants to represent his country in the Davis Cup.

It's about time, too. Everyone has a mean streak - some are just buried deeper than others - and Henman is perfectly justified in using his to try to land a grand-slam title after more than a decade of fruitless endeavour.

He might even be relishing his outpouring of nastiness. He reportedly timed the announcement of his Davis Cup retirement for midnight Melbourne time on Friday to ensure that the hacks in Australia to cover the tennis would be summoned from their beds - or bars - to write their pieces.

No matter, he was following a trend that is becoming increasingly popular among footballers, rugby players and even a few cricketers to abandon the national team.

There is, though, a significant difference in Henman's case. Unlike the other sports, professional tennis is quintessentially an individual pursuit. Each year the Davis Cup interrupts players' efforts to win something for themselves and plonks them in a team environment.

For the man who has been British No1 for most of the time since 1996 - that is, since before Tony Blair arrived at No 10 - national service has been particularly stressful. With Greg Rusedski the country's only other world-class player, Henman has found himself shouldering an enormous burden, knowing that it is not his Davis Cup performances that his tennis life will be measured in, but what he has achieved at Wimbledon and the Australian, French and US Opens.

He is right to say, in effect: 'If you want a Wimbledon champion, you're going to have to do without me in the Davis Cup because I've only got a few years left.' This is the first time he has started a year as a thirtysomething, which is when the biological clock of professional tennis players starts ticking with the resounding thud of a percussionist whacking a kettledrum.

Henman, whose back and shoulder have started to cause him regular discomfort, has done his bit: 19 ties since his debut against Romania in 1994 and 36 victories in 60 matches.

Britain are now in the Europe/Africa zone of the Davis Cup and would have to win a tie against Israel in Tel Aviv in early March and another later in the year if they were to qualify for the world group in 2006. It must seem an awfully long, winding and brutal road for someone who by then would be into his thirty-second year.

The Tel Aviv tie will be the first chance for the new generation to show their worth. 'This is their chance now,' David Felgate, the performance director of British tennis, said yesterday. 'For the next four weeks they will be playing tournaments and we will see who is going to step up and make the captain want to pick them.' Foremost among this group are Andrew Murray, the Scottish teenager who won the US Open junior title last September, and Alex Bogdanovic, the young Londoner with a feisty game and nature.

Henman yesterday entered his new, Davis Cup-free world with a three-set win over Andre Agassi. It was essentially a friendly, arranged so that the 34-year-old American could test a troublesome hip before committing himself to the Australian Open. Henman was happy to oblige. You can't be nasty all the time.