posted Jan 5, 2007

Why is it that Tim Henman's fans keep banging on about his Grand Slam semi final and quarter final appearences? World class players win Grand Slams and get to number one in the world. Henman did neither. He will go down in history as a good player, but he was never great.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

Yes KingFederer 99% of the British public only watch Wimbledon so therefore they cannot call themselves Tennis fans. I also think then that they are not qualified to comment on a Tennis message board least of all about Tim Henman.
The point is he IS world class and he is in the majority . The majority of world class players do NOT win a Slam. How many current top ten players at this moment in time have won a Slam?
Not Ljubicic. Not Davydenko. Not Nalbandian. All considered world class players .
Tim Henman has had a career most players would kill for.
One ignorant person on this thread even said he has never won anything.
Yes he must be a Wimbledon watcher only. I suggest these people invest in Sky T.V then they can see Tennis all year round. Once they have watched the tour for a year then they may come back and comment. Until then I suggest they steer clear of Tennis message boards. They know nothing.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

wingfields. Who says Davydenko, Ljubicic and Nalbandian are world class? As you rightly say none of them have ever won a Grand Slam so quite clearly they aren't world class. In my opinion you have to win at least three Grand Slams to be considered world class. Even Nadal hasn't achieved that yet. Federer is the only world class player currently on the mens tour. Only Sampras and Agassi of recently retired players could be described as world class, and going further back I would say Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg and Lendl.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

I agree Wingfields. I am prepared to pay for Sky Sports (not the repeats on the movies of course), and one of the reasons I invest in Sky is so I can see the ATP Masters Series. The best match between Nadal and Federer was the Rome Masters Series final. How many people here saw that? Obviously not enough as so many keep banging on about how amazing the Wimbledon and Roland Garros finals were. This match was before either of them took place, and was a best of five set match which went to the full five sets and was settled on a final set tie breaker. If anyone of these 'Henman haters' had bothered to invest in Sky they would know that Tim Henman has played quite well in some of the indoor events last year, and that he has WON, yes I said won an ATP Masters Series Event which was Paris in 2003. If you need to know who he beat to win that event -

1st Rnd - bt Davydenko
2nd - Grosjean
3rd - Kuerten
QF - Federer
SF - Roddick
FINAL - Pavel

So please, Henman beat three former World number ones, and was unseeded in this event. It was also the last event he won, when people said he was finished. How many players can say they have won a Masters Series event having beaten 3 former World Number Ones?

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posted Jan 7, 2007

All I can say to Mr. noneofyourbusiness is that is that the case that David Beckham is not a world class footballer because he has never whilst playing for England won the World Cup or European Cup or even come close??

Of course that is just nonsense but that is what you are saying. And without any doubt Nalbandian, Ljubicic and Davydenko are very fine world class players indeed

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posted Jan 7, 2007

Kingfederer.You Henman fans make me laugh. Winning the Paris Masters is no big deal. It's the last Masters Series event of the season before the Masters Cup. Most of the top players who've already qualified for the Masters Cup opt out of it so they don't miss the Masters Cup. Federer, Nadal, Ljubicic, Roddick and Nalbandian all missed last years Paris Masters. It's just not important, yet it's Henman's greatest claim to fame.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

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posted Jan 7, 2007

To KingFederer. Thank you for your post/ posts. It is fair , honest and very knowledgeable. I hope you enjoy the Tennis coverage on Sky for 2007.
A very wise investement I think for true Tennis fans

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posted Jan 7, 2007

wingfields. I agree that Davydenko, Ljubicic and Nalbandian are very good players, as was Henman at his peak, but only a fool would describe them as world class. If Davydenko, Ljubicic and Nalbandian are world class what does that make Federer? God?

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posted Jan 7, 2007

Almost.. Win us two French Opens and one more Wimbledon and 3 other slams and you can have call him that. God of Tennis at least.

I never actually said Henman was World class. Agassi and Sampras are the only World Class player of recent times. I do agree Tim Henman is a very good player, but he doesn't deserve the amount of disrespect he has been shown by the British public. In this country we believe we have a God given right to win things, but that is not the case. The problem is lots of people don't accept Rusedski as a British player, so Henman is the only Brit we have, but it's not his fault that other people in this country don't have the ability, desire, hunger, or focus play at the highest level. The sad thing is there are youngsters from less well off countries who are better than our youngsters, and what that proves is that despite massive amount of money the LTA have driven into developing future Tennis stars nobody has come through, so something is wrong with the system. But I'll save that argument for another day.


Roddick was actually World Number one when Henman beat him in the Paris Masters, and Federer was number two. mrnoneofyourbusiness I do agree that Henman is past his best, but when you have people saying Mark Philippoussis is the best player never to win a slam it bothers me, as I believe Henman is a better player than him. What really bothers me is that the British public have no respect for Henman, but as I said earlier 99% of the public don't see the rest of the year outside of Wimbledon. What I would like to ask is if Andy Murray wins the US Open are people in this country going to say that if he doesn't win Wimbledon he is a failure?

At the end of the day Henman deserves respect for what he has achieved in his career.

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