He also achieved considerable success on hard courts early in his career, with his first title on the top tier ATP tour won in Sydney with a straight sets win over Carlos Moya.

[9] From the age of eight until his introduction to the Slater Squad, Henman received coaching from the David Lloyd Tennis Centre, where he was given personal lessons by former professional player Onny Parun from New Zealand.

[11] In retrospect, Lloyd notes, Henman's parents understood what many don't: "you can always go back to higher education at 22 or 23 but that that is far too late to start a serious tennis career."

The main goal of the Slater Squad was to pick and coach young players from the ages of nine or ten, instead of 11 and 12 as the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) did.

[13] In contrast to popular belief, Henman was not considered the best of the bunch, and Sue Barker, the British 1976 French Open Women's champion, judged that there was "nothing particularly special in his game in those days".

[14] None of his fellow players in the Slater Squad saw Henman as a potential British number one, with most believing Marc Moreso to be the group's brightest hope.

Having lived in Barnes, southwest London, the family moved in 2003 to a Grade 2 listed property in Aston Tirrold, south Oxfordshire.

Henman's next tournament was the Volkswagen National Championships in Telford, England; he reached the quarter-final but lost to top-ranked British male player Jeremy Bates, 7–5, 7–6.

To make matters better for Henman, he won his first match ever in a Grand Slam event at the Wimbledon Championship over Kenyan Paul Wekesa in straight sets, 7–6, 6–0, 6–4.

[34] Two days later he partnered Jeremy Bates in the first round of the doubles at Wimbledon but the pair became the first players in the Open era to be defaulted at Wimbledon after Henman accidentally hit a ballgirl on the side of head with a ball, having lashed out with his racket in frustration after losing a point to a net cord in the fourth set tie-break of their match against Jeff Tarango and Henrik Holm.

Henman came to the attention of the wider tennis world in 1996 when he came from match point down, saving two successive match points with aces when serving at 3–5 and 15/40, and then breaking his opponent's serve twice in a row to win the final set 7–5 and beat reigning French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the first round at Wimbledon, going on to reach the quarter finals before losing to Todd Martin.

Based on that success he was expected, at least within England, to be the first man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a major for Britain – which in the end he never managed, Wimbledon 2001 being the closest that he ever came to reaching a final.

His next tournament was the Australian Open; Henman had wins over Hicham Arazi, Nicolás Lapentti, and Wayne Arthurs, but lost to Patrick Rafter in the fourth round in straight sets.

At the French Open Henman had wins over Tomas Behrend and Sjeng Schalken, but lost to Guillermo Cañas in five sets in round three.

[39] On the grass at Queen's Club Championships Henman reached the final, where he was defeated in straight sets by Australian Lleyton Hewitt.

The players returned the following day but Henman couldn't recapture his form from the Friday and lost the fourth set in a tie break.

Near the end of the season, Henman won the Swiss Indoors, by defeating the previous runner-up Roger Federer in straight sets.

[45] At the Davis Cup World Group Play-off against Austria, Henman and Greg Rusedski played all five rubbers on the Austrian clay, but were beaten 3–2.

Henman's next tournament was the first ATP Masters Series event of the year; at the Indian Wells he reached the quarterfinals after receiving a bye (meaning he could skip the first round).

Henman ended an eight-match losing streak against Lleyton Hewitt on 25 March 2006, with a 7–6, 6–3 victory at the Miami Masters tournament, but lost in the third round to unseeded German Simon Greul in three sets; 6–0, 1–6, 5–7.

[50] On Henman's last practice session before departing for the Australian Open at the start of 2007, having recovered from his knee injury, he injured his hamstring which forced him to withdraw from the tournament.

He returned in time to enter Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami after withdrawing from Rotterdam and Zagreb but lost in the first round in both of them.

His grass court season got underway on 12 June 2007 at Queens Club, but was put to an abrupt end by Croatian wildcard entry Marin Čilić.

However, he ended the day with a doubles victory with partner Lleyton Hewitt over Australian Jordan Kerr and Austrian Alexander Peya.

An early loss at a grass court event in Nottingham was followed up with a poor showing at Wimbledon, with Henman losing in the second round to Feliciano López in five sets.

Henman played three more tournaments before retiring; at his last Grand Slam appearance ever, he lost in the second round of the US Open to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets; 6–7, 6–2, 5–7, 4–6.

[51] Henman announced at a press conference on 23 August 2007 that he would retire from tennis after playing in the US Open and Britain's Davis Cup tie against Croatia in September 2007.

After the match Henman told Sue Barker in an interview on BBC Television and in front of the Court 1 crowd, "It's occasions like this and fans like this that I will miss so much".

At the time of his retirement, Henman had already committed to playing a Charity Exhibition at London's Royal Albert Hall during the Seniors Tennis Event The Blackrock Masters in December 2007.

Henman took part in a test event for the adoption of the centre court roof in May 2009, playing mixed doubles with Kim Clijsters against husband and wife team Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.