Tim Henman narrowly missed out on a place in the 2001 Wimbledon final, largely thanks to the rain delays.
The British number one led Goran Ivanisevic by two sets to one, but eventually lost out in five sets, after their match was delayed several days due to the rain.
For 25 years, many have suggested Henman would have reached the final had it not been for the rain, and some even believe he would have beaten Pat Rafter in the final.
Now that the draw is out, which British player do you think will do the best at Wimbledon?
Ahead of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, Henman has delivered his verdict on his devastating semi-final defeat to Ivanisevic, sharing an interesting perspective on the delays.
Tim Henman says he never would have reached the 2001 Wimbledon semi-finals without delays
Appearing as a guest on ‘Q&Andy‘, Henman was asked whether he believes he would have reached the final of Wimbledon in 2001 if there hadn’t been any rain delays.
“I don’t think I know…” he said.
“I was joking!
“The funny thing about that was in the fourth round, in 2001, I was playing Todd Martin, who is one of my closest friends from tennis. We’re going to, my family, go and stay with him actually in August, in Rhode Island.
“Basically, when I’d got up, picked my bags up to leave the locker room, my back seized up, and I was really struggling.
“I was two sets to one down and we stopped for bad light.
“That night I was able to get treatment, a lot of work on my back, came back the next day, played great, beat him in five sets.”
Henman knows the delays helped him in the fourth round, and kept that in mind when discussing the events that transpired in the semi-finals.
“Fast forward four days, I then play [Goran] Ivanisevic in the semis,” he said.
“Two sets to one up, and it starts raining, and then we come back on Saturday, he wins the fourth, it rains again.
“We come back on Sunday, and he wins.
“It was definitely the most frustrating and disappointing match in my career.
“But without the delay [in the fourth round], I wouldn’t have got there, and there were plenty of occasions where delays helped me, but that was definitely the most high-profile one.”
Tim Henman at Wimbledon in 2001
- 1R [WIN] vs Artem Derepasko, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1
- 2R [WIN] vs Martin Lee, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
- 3R [WIN] vs Sjeng Schalken, 5-7, 6-3, 7-4, 6-2
- 4R [WIN] vs Todd Martin, 6-7, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
- QF [WIN] vs Roger Federer, 7-5, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6
- SF [LOSS] vs Goran Ivanisevic, 5-7, 7-6, 6-0, 6-7, 3-6
Still, Henman knows he missed a real opportunity to make the Wimbledon final against Ivanisevic.
“Look, if we’d have had a roof, I think I had a good chance to beat Goran, I played him four times up until that point, and I had never lost, and he was someone that I kind of like playing,” said Henman.
Tim Henman and Goran Ivanisevic’s head-to-head record
| Match | Winner | Loser | Score |
| 2001 Wimbledon – SF | Goran Ivanisevic | Tim Henman | 5-7, 7-6, 6-0, 6-7, 3-6 |
| 1999 Swiss Indoors – SF | Tim Henman | Goran Ivanisevic | 6-3, 6-4 |
| 1998 Queen’s – 3R | Tim Henman | Goran Ivanisevic | 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 |
| 1997 Stuttgart Open – 2R | Tim Henman | Goran Ivanisevic | 6-3, 2-0 (RET) |
| 1997 Sydney International – SF | Tim Henman | Goran Ivanisevic | 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 |
“But on that occasion, it didn’t go my way.
“I had to play [Pat] Rafter in the final, there is no way I would have lost to him!”
Henman never had the chance to play a Wimbledon final, but did he come close again after 2001?
Tim Henman’s Wimbledon record after 2001
Returning to Wimbledon in 2002 as the fourth seed, Henman made his way through to the semi-finals once again, defeating Jean-Francois Bachelot, Scott Draper, Wayne Ferreira, Michel Kratochvil, and Andre Sa.
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt stood between Henman and the Wimbledon final.
Unfortunately for Henman, he couldn’t push Hewitt nearly as close as he pushed Ivanisevic 12 months earlier, falling to defeat in three sets, 5-7, 1-6, 5-7.
He never reached another Wimbledon semi-final, losing in the 2003 and 2004 quarter-finals to Sebastien Grosjean and Mario Ancic, respectively.
Henman then lost in the second round of his next three Wimbledon events, before retiring from tennis in 2007.
The 51-year-old never won Wimbledon, but came close several times and remains a true icon of British tennis.
