My love affair with the game of tennis became slightly bruised in the 1990's, when I thought that racket equipment technology started to get out of hand.
I felt that grass court tennis was being badly damaged by the sheer power of the graphite rackets - we were seeing far too much 'Serve, Smash and Boom' tennis from 7-foot giants.
I would have been in favour of altering the texture of the tennis balls to slow the game down a bit, especially for grass court tennis.
However, I did find myself enjoying some of the play at Wimbledon this year. It was nice to see quite a number of good 'baseliners' - players who don't rely so much on smash and serve, but instead win matches from the back of the court.
The Andy Rodthingy serve though (145mph) was frightening.
My favourite player always used to be McEnroe. I know he was an abrasive, volatile, bad-tempered brat at times.
But he was also possibly the most naturally gifted player to ever pick up a tennis racket. Watching him was always great entertainment.
It was sad that some of the tabloids had a right go at Henman this year, branding him a "loser", a "failure", "gutless", "useless" and "spineless" etc.
I would accept that his performance in the quarter-final this year was disappointing. But let's not forget that Henman is our most successful male singles player for nearly 70 years - having reached 4 Wimbledon semi-finals and a French Open semi-final. To get ranked in the Top 5 of the World ratings is no mean feat, and Tim deserves credit for that.
I wonder if some of the criticism that Henman has had from people is partly based on a type of class prejudice.
Tim comes from a comfortable middle class background and plays a traditionally middle class sport, but is that a reason to actually
hate him?
His background, where he was born with a semi-silver sthingy in his mouth to wealthy parents with a tennis court in his back garden surely isn't
his fault is it?
I've always enjoyed playing tennis, although I'm still knackered from playing on Thursday afternoon. I'm not as fit as I used to be. It can be a very physically demanding sport at times.
Below, the lovely Jelena Dokic. She's got a great forehand - and two other nice assets too....
Don't let people like Cliff Richard and Mike Read put you off tennis. It can be a great game....
