6 hours Ago By Yasmin Syed
Rafael Nadal cemented himself as one of the greats of tennis before retiring last year. The former No. 1 burst onto the scene as a teenager, dominating on the clay before finding his feet on all the surfaces and winning 22 Grand Slam titles, 14 of which came at the French Open.
While Nadal’s potential was evident, Tim Henman has now confessed that he never thought the Spaniard’s hard-hitting game would pay off. The former world No. 4 hit with Nadal when he was still an up-and-comer.
While the tennis world knew they had a future star on their hands, Henman was sceptical of Nadal’s high-risk approach. “I remember the first time I practised with Nadal, which was in Miami and I’d never seen anyone hit the ball that hard, but every third shot was kind of in the back fence,” he said. “I didn't really honestly believe that you could play like that because you would make mistakes and, you know, he didn't hit the ball as hard in matches as he did in practice.
” However, the former player-turned-pundit quickly changed his mind when Nadal proved him wrong during their training session. “But after I'd lost the practice set 6-1, I thought, well, maybe it will work,” Henman smiled. Nadal wasn’t the only player who left an impression on Henman.
The Brit also knew Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic would go on to lift the biggest trophies in the sport, though he never could’ve predicted just how successful the Big Three became. He explained: “I think if I were to wind the clock back to when I was first aware of each of them, I would have said, they're very good players and can they win a Slam? Yeah, I think they could win a Slam. But beyond that, absolutely not.
“I definitely would have, as we all would have done, thought these guys are potential Slam winners, but to win 66 between them is just difficult to comprehend. “And I think when [Pete] Sampras was playing in my era, he got to 14, I would have bet my bottom dollar that no one was going to go past that. To see three of them do that is incredible.
” Federer retired with 20 Major titles while Nadal captured 22. Djokovic holds the Open Era record of 24 Grand Slam trophies and is one away from surpassing Margaret Court’s tally to make history. The Serb has not won a Major title since the 2023 US Open, and Henman believes Wimbledon is Djokovic’s best chance of lifting his 25th.
“He made the final last year on the back of knee surgery. And I think with his confidence and understanding of grass court tennis and then perhaps fewer other players who are comfortable on grass,” he added. “I think Wimbledon is his best shot to win a 25th.
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