Tim Henman, the former British No. 1 and four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist, has said that the record number of early British exits at this year's tournament were largely expected, and that there is no cause for panic. Speaking exclusively to Standard Sport, Henman acknowledged the disappointment of a chastening opening day in which 10 British players lost within the first 10 hours, while Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu withdrew through injury.
Strength in depth improving
Henman, who is working as a BBC commentator at Wimbledon for the 18th year, said that British tennis is in a far better position than a decade ago. “There is no doubt that it was a disappointing day,” he said. “But in actual fact, the reality is that British tennis is in a way better position than it was 10 or 15 years ago. In terms of that strength in depth from (the top) 250, we’ve got way more players, and we’ve got some exciting players to come through.”
He highlighted promising young talents including 17-year-olds Mika Stojsavljevic and Hannah Klugman, and 18-year-old Mimi Xu on the women’s side, as well as a strong cohort of men’s players who have moved up the rankings inside the top 250. “You had Ollie Tarvet qualify, Max Basing qualify. You’ve got Toby Samuel, Jack Pinnington Jones. Billy Harris also came through qualifying.”
Draper and Raducanu injury frustrations
Henman expressed particular frustration over the injury setbacks of Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu. Draper, who was world No. 5 this time last year and won Indian Wells in 2025, beating Carlos Alcaraz, has been hampered by physical issues. “Your ranking doesn’t lie,” Henman said. “With his game style, because he’s a lefty, he’s very physical, he’s a great athlete, he’s got a huge serve, massive forehand. He really can challenge the best players in the world. … But unfortunately, his body is letting him down.”
Regarding Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam at the 2021 US Open, Henman said the 23-year-old needs to build mental resilience to overcome her stop-start career. “If you just go back and look at her results and how stop-start it is, there are very few periods of her career in the last five years where she’s played five, six, seven months without any of these injury setbacks. And that’s got to be a big frustration. She hasn’t been able to build that physical resilience.”
Henman’s own career perspective
Henman, who peaked at world No. 4 in 2002 and reached the Wimbledon semi-finals four times in five years between 1998 and 2002, said he believes he was good enough to win a Grand Slam but was beaten by better players such as Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, and Roger Federer. He noted that success is about maximising potential, which he feels he did. “I think I was good enough to win a Grand Slam title. But there were other players who were better than me. … Was I a better player than Thomas Hansen? Yeah, I think I was. He won the Australian Open. Was I a better player than Gastón Gaudio? I think I was, but he won the French Open. So you need a few things to go your way. But I think then, when I look back, and you try and quantify what success was, I think success is about maximising your potential, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that I did that.”
Henman, who started playing tennis at age three and attended Wimbledon for the first time at six, now plays only twice a year and spends much of his time golfing. He joked about Vodafone’s 5G+ Serve Experience, which recreates serves from Centre Court, saying, “I think this 5G+ serve is a lot more consistent than my serve, and it’s probably a lot faster. They said they hit 153 the other day. So that’s pretty rapid.”
