PODCAST - Halfway Through Wimbledon 2023

TIM HENMAN ON FALLING IN LOVE WITH WIMBLEDON - ‘When I reflect on the whole journey of my mum taking me to Wimbledon when I was six for the first time, I saw Bjorn Borg play in 1981 and that was when I made my one-and-only career decision, so then fifteen years later to play on Centre Court for the first time and to be a British player and have that support, It was always going to be special’.

TIM HENMAN ON PLAYING WITHOUT PRESSURE - ‘I always joked that when I was getting blamed for the weather at Wimbledon, expectation was too high! You control the controllables. I’ve always been interested in the psychology of sport and the mind and pressure is all self-inflicted. In 1995 I got disqualified from Wimbledon and I accidentally hit a ball girl when we were playing a doubles first round. The next day I was sharing a flat with another player and he went out and bought all the newspapers and I sat there in the morning reading them all and it was horrific and I said to myself there and then, I will never read a newspaper ever again because it’s their opinion and why would I be influenced by a journalist who’s never played the game, so from that moment on I never listened to outside voices’.

TIM HENMAN ON HENMAN HILL - ‘So in 1996 it was when the old court number one was knocked down and when the new court was constructed and there was a lot of moving of earth and they sort of piled the earth and that was when this hill was formed and they put the big screen up and I was playing my matches then and getting into the second week and that was when it became known as Henman Hill and it’s another amazing connection for me with the Championships’.

- Show presented by Chris Bowers - Podcast guests Peter Marcato and Jill Craybas - Tim Henman interview by Jill Craybas