March 19, 2005
Henman 'a talent who can yet win in SW19'
By Neil Harman
"Think of the magnitude of Tim Henman winning Wimbledon. That would have to be the biggest individual thing in the history of British sport, wouldn't it? That's a lot of pressure for the kid to feel. And he does feel it."
It is funny to hear 33-year-old Pete Sampras talking about a 30-year-old as a kid. Sampras says he was born to win Wimbledon; Henman still senses it is his destiny. "You need a strong belief, sure," Sampras said. "Is Tim the best player in the world? No. Is he a truly great player? No. But he is an extremely talented player and if things fall into place it can happen.
"He needs the right players to lose, he needs to be scheduled at the right time, he needs to shut out the voices he doesn't need to hear. I had the single-minded focus that he is still trying to find."
Henman has described the British tennis press as "the worst in the world" and Sampras said that the nation's No 1 is sensitive to criticism. "But there are things you can do," he said. "I remember being in an elevator with him once and his mobile phone rang. It was a British journalist. I said, 'Tim, what are you doing? Why does a journalist have your cell number? Is that a part of your profession you have to deal with?'
"When I was competing I couldn't have handled that. I couldn't have a really close relationship with anyone in the media, so I never gave any of them my number. Tim really is too nice, he doesn't want to upset anybody.
"Every day you wake up and you only have so much energy for something. My energy was training to get better and to win. I didn't want anything to get in my way and I made sure it didn't. I would have liked not to have had to talk to anybody, especially early on."
Sampras is passionate about Wimbledon and was saddened to hear about their change of heart about building a roof over Centre Court, planned for 2008. "I don't like it," he said. "I think it's a huge advantage to British players and the top guys who will play on Centre Court, but others might have to wait four days to play. It's unfair, like playing two different events at one time.
"I can see how it makes sense business-wise, for the fans, for television. It is difficult playing Wimbledon. I remember once starting on Monday and not playing until Friday and it made you apprehensive in a special way.
"But there's no other place like it. It had a profound effect on me, which made it bigger than tennis in my mind. I really miss Wimbledon. I miss everything about it. As a shy, introverted person, it was the one place I could really show off."
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