Tim Henman: ‘Whenever I stand on a tennis court now, I think I’d much rather be playing golf’

We are sitting in the Rolex suite at Wimbledon. Henman, a youthful-looking 49, is dressed in the retired sportsman’s uniform of chinos and zip-up sweater, a glass of sparkling water on the table in front of him.

Rolex has been the official timekeeper for Wimbledon since 1978. There can be few better examples of effective sponsorship and branding. Every time a camera shot focuses on the scoreboard on any Wimbledon court, the Rolex clock is there. 

He has been a “testimonee” for the watch brand since 2013. Decorating the suite are portraits of the elite group of tennis players who are his fellow “testimonees” – Chris Evert, Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz, Björn Borg (the man who first inspired Henman to become a tennis player) and Roger Federer, who he considers the greatest player ever to grace Centre Court. 

Henman played Federer 13 times, winning six and losing seven. He could tell you the details of every match, every stroke. “I can remember matches I played when I was under eight. All the bad line calls I got.”

And you’re still angry. He laughs. 

Henman says that what defines Wimbledon for him is “its history and tradition – and now we have innovation – but that goes back to grass courts, predominantly white clothing. Centre Court, the Royal Box…” In short, an occasion that is quintessentially English – something that might be said of Henman himself. 

He is the product of an affluent middle-class background; his father, Tony, who died shortly before my interview with Henman, was a solicitor and a sporting all-rounder, ever present in the Centre Court stands at his son’s Wimbledon appearances, immaculately dressed in blazer and tie, his craggy features fixed, as one tennis correspondent put it, in an expression of “magnificent, inscrutable calm, which became one of the great British performances of the fortnight”. 

Henman grew up in Oxfordshire, the youngest of three sons, all of whom were encouraged to excel at all sports, from football to hockey, cricket to squash.

But it was tennis – and Wimbledon – that was in his blood. In 1901 his maternal great-grandmother, Ellen Stawell-Brown, was reputedly the first woman to serve overarm at Wimbledon. His maternal grandmother, Susan Billington, appeared regularly at Wimbledon in the 1950s, playing mixed doubles on Centre Court with her husband, Henry, as well as reaching the third round of the ladies’ doubles in 1951, 1955 and 1956.