Page "Tim Henman" Paragraph 6

Henman was picked up by the Slater Squad, a group funded by one-time millionaire Jim Slater, at the age of eleven.

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

The original intake for the squad were eight people between the ages of eight and eleven.

In the squad, Henman worked on tennis three hours a day: two hours playing tennis and receiving advice from the personal coach, and the last hour on gymnastics and learning about the game.

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, claimed that there was " nothing particularly special in his game in those days ".

She does note, however, that while Henman did not have the natural skills of a tennis player, he was " a hard worker ".

None of his fellow players in the Slater Squad saw Henman as a potential British Number 1, with most believing Marc Moreso to be the group's brightest hope.

Not long after becoming a member of the Slater Squad, Henman was diagnosed with osteochondritis, a bone disease.

He was unable to play tennis for six months, and it was two years before he could return to tournaments.

Luckily for Henman, Slater kept funding him while he was recuperating, because of insistence from Lloyd who believed in Henman's tennis abilities.