Although it had become something of an open secret, Tim Henman was officially confirmed as Great Britain’s ATP Cup captain on Friday morning.
Henman was chosen by fellow former British No. 1 Andy Murray to lead the side in the inaugural event, with Britain to spend the entirety of the three-city event in Sydney.
The 24-nation tournament – in which group stage matches will be played in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane before the knockout stages take place in Sydney – will provide an extra layer of intrigue ahead of the first Grand Slam of 2020, the Australian Open.
Roger Federer may have pulled out but the other nine members of the top-10 in the ATP rankings will be on hand, with legends Thomas Muster, Marat Safin and Boris Becker already confirmed as Austria, Russia and Germany captains.
The top-ranked player in each nation gets to choose who will skipper their country and Henman was selected by Murray, who used his protected ranking to ensure Britain qualified.
Asked somewhat tongue in cheek why he had been selected ahead of Greg Rusedski – a fellow former world No. 4 and British No. 1 – for the role, Henman replied: ‘I have known Andy a lot longer, and, yeah, probably have a better relationship with him.
‘You know, it wasn’t something I was necessarily expecting. But once Andy sent me a message and said, “How about it?” I definitely gave it some serious thought.
‘I think he’s a significant reason why I accepted, because he’s someone that I have had a great relationship for a long time. The impact that he’s had on, you know, British tennis as well as world tennis has been enormous.
‘Having seen what he’s gone through with the hip surgery and how well he’s come back, I think how he’s taken so many people by surprise and I think how much more he’s still got to improve, I think that’s what’s exciting and was, as I said, a big part of why I accepted the captaincy.’
Henman and Murray will be joined by Murray’s brother Jamie, Dan Evans, Joe Salisbury and Cam Norrie Down Under to kickstart the 2020 season but it could prove to be a strangely emotional time for Murray.
He broke down in tears ahead of last year’s Australian Open, looking on the verge of retirement before undergoing hip surgery a matter of days.
The hip resurfacing operation gave Murray a new lease of life and he incredibly won a singles title in Antwerp last month, to crown what has been a remarkable recovery.
Henman smiled: ‘It’s incredible, isn’t it? It’s easy in hindsight to say, “Oh, everybody was writing him off a bit quickly”, but when you understand the severity of the operation, no one knew how that was going to unfold.
‘But you reflect on seeing him in Melbourne in tears and then it’s incredible nine, ten months later for him to be winning a tournament in Antwerp.
‘I’ve been around him and seen how – I think he can improve a lot more physically and, you know, the tennis element is never going to be a problem – but if he can still get fitter and stronger and faster then he’s going to play better.’
Murray’s physical condition will still be approached with care and Henman hinted at rotation during the group stages, with Norrie and Evans also available for singles matches.
‘That’s where, given the round robin format, we definitely do have options to, you know, with the here matches, rotate the players, and certainly with the singles with Andy Dan and Cam, I like our chances,’ he added.
‘Likewise with the doubles. You sort of feel that most of them could play with each other. That will be much more part of the planning and discussing once we get to Australia I think, you know, how they deal with getting there, the conditions… but it is nice – I’ve been part of times where we haven’t had any options and that’s harder. I think with this one, with these five, we’ve got plenty of options.’
While there’s a clear drive from the ATP to have high-profile captains to give the event a further edge, Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith may feel somewhat miffed that he was overlooked for the captain role.
It feels a strange scenario that two British men’s teams will be heading into the Davis Cup and ATP Cup – two competitions starting six weeks apart – with two different captains, but Smith will not be involved in any capacity in Australia.
‘Probably not,’ Henman said when asked if Smith would be part of his backroom team. ‘I think with me being captain of the ATP Cup and the structure being a little bit different I think he in the Davis Cup role is very much coaching the players whereas I would expect in the ATP Cup it’s a slightly more relaxed environment, expecting the individual coaches of the players to come along as well so it’s probably not so relevant for him to be there.
‘These guys have got their own individual coaches so it’s not like I’m going to come in and start making drastic changes to their games technically. I think at this level it’s all about strategy it’s all about game plans and the way that players impose themselves and the games of their opponents so I guess you are trying to prepare them to make sure they play their best tennis.
‘There isn’t really a choice is there because the number one player decides, so as I said I would have thought Leon would have been a very good option but with it being a different event Andy wanted to have a bit of a change.’
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