During a 15-year career as a professional tennis player, Tim Henman won just a single tournament on British soil, keeping his fans almost permanently on the edge of their seats with a series of nail-biting runs to the latter stages of both Wimbledon and Queen’s Club. Now 40, Henman plies his trade mainly on the golf course these days, but he remains a popular competitor on the ATP Champions Tour – the mini-circuit of tournaments featuring former greats of the game – especially when it comes to the season-ending climax at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Henman made the final of the Statoil Masters last year, losing to Patrick Rafter who remains impressively athletic at the age of 41. If Henman is to repeat his run, he’ll have to produce something rather special with an impressive 2014 field featuring Fernando Gonzalez and Andy Roddick, both of whom only quit the pro tour two years ago.

However, Henman made a decent start on Wednesday afternoon, overcoming 1999 Australian Open finalist Thomas Enqvist 6-7, 6-4, 10-8. If he can see off Gonzalez on Saturday afternoon, he could face Roddick in Sunday’s final. Gonzalez makes his tournament debut on Thursday against Enqvist.

Henman also acts as an occasional TV commentator at the big events and he admitted to being disappointed with Andy Murray’s performances at the ATP World Tour Finals last month. Murray made an early exit with a humiliating 6-0, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Roger Federer.           

“The way Andy played at the O2 was below par,” Henman said. “For me the early part of next year is vital for him. It’s a good opportunity to move up the rankings, he’s got little to defend because his back surgery limited him at the start of 2014. But also for me I’d like to see a bit more identity coming back to his game.”

Henman feels that Murray has become stuck in something of a counter-punching rut and allows opponents to dominate him from the back of the court rather than seeking to take the initiative himself.

“Over the past few months he’s looked a little more reactive than proactive,” he said. “He should look to use the weapons he’s got because that’s what he did when he was winning the US Open and Wimbledon with Lendl. That was when he was winning the most. He’s got those weapons and I’d like to see him use them more.”

Henman has also been an intrigued spectator to the Indian Tennis Premier League which is currently in full swing, moving across three different continents. With Roger Federer also taking part in a unique exhibition event against Lleyton Hewitt in January, featuring a first-to-four-games scoring system with a tiebreak at three-all, does Henman believe there is more scope for experimentation in tennis?   

“I don’t think we need it at the very highest level,” he says. “I think there is scope for a little bit of a variety at different times of the year and there’s no harm in trying these types of things. But when you talk about the Grand Slams, the cornerstones of our game, I’d be very reluctant to make those changes because they’re leading from the front. I don’t think there’s any problem with the format of two week events over best of five sets. I wouldn’t look to alter that but I’m interested to see how the ITPL thing evolves and whether there’s sustainability there. Who knows.”