Henman ‘to captain Britain’
Tim Henman will reportedly be returning to the court at January’s big-money ATP Cup event in Australia – this time as the captain of the British team.
According to the rules of the cup, the top player on each team – in this case Andy Murray, who used his protected No 2 ranking to enter Britain to the 10-day event – has the right to choose the captain he wants.
Henman was an important mentor to Murray in his early days on tour and their relationship remains strong. Although Britain’s Davis Cup captain, Leon Smith, would have been one option for the role, this is an intriguing decision – and it will have the additional benefit of differentiating the two events.
They are already too close together in the calendar, with the new-look Davis Cup Finals week finishing in Madrid on Nov 24 and the ATP Cup beginning only six weeks later on Jan 3.
Great Britain have been drawn to play their matches in Sydney and will face Switzerland – who will be missing both Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka – as well as Belgium and one other as-yet unspecified team.
Henman, 45, told The Daily Telegraph in an interview this summer that he is ready to turn more of his attention to tennis. He is a committee member at the All England Club and is starting to travel to overseas tournaments again as a commentator.
His five-man team for the ATP Cup are likely to be built around the Murray brothers, with Dan Evans, Cameron Norrie and Kyle Edmund also in line to participate.
According to the Daily Mail, Henman travelled to France last week during the Paris Masters event so that he could have dinner with some of the players he may end up leading.
The captain’s role involves on-court coaching as well as selecting the doubles pairing for each match.
Every rubber consists of two singles matches and one doubles.