Isnt it quite sad that Tim Henman,who I believe is a far more accomplished tennis player than Fernando Gonzales,will not play on the Tour Of Champions because he does not meet the criteria.

I do like Fernando dont get me wrong,but its quite the travesty that Tim,will need a special invite to play when they think he is worthy and thats like a once off thing!

Truely robbed of his greatness!

Do you have a link for this, DN??

No link needed Petalp.The criteria is as follows...You need to have at least been number 1 in the world=Tim doesnt qualify. You need to have been a grand slam Champion= Tim doesnt qualify. You need to have been in a grand slam final+Tim doesnt qualify. You need to have been a member of a Winning Davis Cup Team=Tim doesnt qualify.

Anyone of the above is automatic entry to your afterlife in tennis after the ATP TOUR!

Tim meets no criteria so its obvious he wont be playing there,but Gonzo will!

Well Dark, I'm not sure if it's entirely fair to highlight Gonzo as an example of why Tim should be there, esp as Gonzo is in the middle of his career and may well continue to go on to do great things.

And let's be honest there are others who perhaps are better examples of how this is unjust.

But are the rules cast in stone? :shrug: There are always special cases in tennis, and it might not be taken as read that Tim will not get invited onto it. He might well be one of the best top 5 players to not qualify for this, so might merit special dispensation, as it were. :)

Tour of Champions is a business venture, selling tennis nostalgia to whoever wants to lap it up. If there is sufficient demand for this sort of thing, Henman will get invited. If there isn't, who cares? He's a personable character and I'm sure will enjoy a life after professional tennis in either television or PR (as Krajicek has done). I'd sooner remember him as a very entertaining player (infuriating to watch at times, admittedly) on video rather than by seeing him lumbering around with others who probably have nothing much else to do with their spare time.

Sadly for Tim, his bottle went against Ivanisevic in 2001 and his greateast chance of A GrandSlam went with it. That was his best chance of reaching the above criteria for the Tour Of Champions. Who are we to argue he should be in it? When it mattered, Tim was found wanting. It is after all the Tour Of Champions, and not Tour of Nearly Men.

To be fair to Tim, I believe he deserves a berth far more than Greg Rusedski, who will qualify automatically for this. Gonzalez plays some attractive tennis and will deserve his chance.

Also, you can bet your bottom dollar that Tim will get an invite into the British events as it will increase revenue substantially with him in it.

Fully agreed! Greg Rusedki is deemed as "more accomplished" than Tim because he reached that lone final at the US Open and he will qualify.Truely sad.

There are plaenty others but I used Gonzo as an example because he is quite a late bloomer in his career.I could have used more useless people like Greg Rusedki,Guilermo Coria,Martin Verkerk.

Its quite sad that they will use him just to generate revunue in his home country with a slap in the face invite.Thats my point!