Quotes from Tim Henman

It's important to promote tennis in inner city schools so kids in those areas have access to the sport.

If there has been any match-fixing then we need to make sure that it's erased from our sport because it's a crime in sports. We have no place for it in any sport let alone tennis.

I know I'm not the best tennis player there's ever been, but calling me a loser is just ignorance.

Returning serve on clay is not easy because you don't always have a sure footing so you can't push off in the way that you would like.

I had eight consecutive years in the top 20 and five of those were in the top 10. That's something I'm very proud of. And the way that I played some of my matches at Wimbledon was also very special.

If I could have played my whole career on one court it would have been the Centre Court at Wimbledon.

The on-site catering facilities at Wimbledon are absolutely fantastic. Whatever your dietary requirements are, you can find what you need.

I feel at times I get blamed for the weather at Wimbledon.

Wimbledon is quite simply the ultimate championship, and I'd be the first to admit it was the one I wanted to win. A lot has to do with the history and the tradition: the grass courts, the royal box, the grand spectacle of it all.

There are too many British players who just aren't good enough. And that's not through lack of effort. But in terms of getting to the top 100, and getting into Wimbledon on their ranking, I feel as though there are too many players who just aren't good enough.

At Wimbledon there is a golf putting machine to play on in the locker room.

Tennis is not always that accessible but I sometimes think badminton is harder - tennis you can always play against the wall but badminton is tough to even play outdoors with the wind.

Players have a very short window of opportunity and they're just interested in what they can earn.

I love a rack of lamb with a good bottle of red wine.

When I think about how badly I wanted to be a player, and how obsessed I was with the game, I think that, for a long time in British tennis, that's been a big question mark with the kids, how much they want it.

Dealing with the press it was pretty obvious there was a right answer and there was an honest answer. I think quite a lot of the time I gave the right answer. That was my defence mechanism.

People need to know that they can make a living. We are losing a lot of the best athletes to other sports at the age of seven or eight, which is exactly the time when you want to get a racket into their hand.

I've never been interested in the whole fame game; the headlines when I was disqualified in 1995 for hitting a ball girl were more than enough to make me want to keep my head under the radar.

I've realised I've hit enough tennis balls to last me a lifetime.

There are no grey areas with commitment, you're either in or you are out; 95 per cent doesn't work. I didn't have that much talent as a kid, but I worked at it, all hours known to man.

I love red meat.

People sometimes come up to me and call me Tiger Tim. Why am I called that? I don't know, it starts with T and I don't know. It has stuck.

People have been asking me for a couple of years when I am going to retire, and I think that now is the right time.

I'm not really a guy who looks back or has regrets. In my house there's only one photograph of me from my playing days.