Tim Henman was an extremely accomplished tennis player, of that there can be no debate. However, it would be fair to say that in terms of the biggest titles, the Englishman frequently fell short.
One of tennis's nearly men, he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon on four different occasions, while also advancing through to the last four of both the French and US Opens in 2004.
He did have a bit more luck where ATP events were concerned, although there were still more defeats in finals than victories (11-17).
The majority of Henman's triumphs came overseas, but there was one occasion when he lifted a trophy on home soil, which happened 15 years ago today in the intimate surroundings of the Brighton Centre at the Samsung Open.
Having not dropped a set on his way to the final, Henman was the big favourite to overcome his 22-year-old opponent Dominik Hrbaty.
There was one reason for caution, though, because up until his win in Vienna a month earlier, Henman had lost seven finals in a row, including at Queen's Club when Pete Sampras recovered from a set down at his expense.
Hrbaty won the toss down on the South Coast and elected to serve first, but having been broken at the first time of asking, the youngster from the Czech Republic never recovered.
Henman broke again with an accurate forehand from the baseline to make the scoreline 4-1 in his favour to take complete control of proceedings, before he served out for the set with his second ace of the match.
A double fault at the start of the second set handed Henman yet another break of Hrbaty's serve, which all but ended the Czech's chances of mounting a comeback.
Later in the set he aggravated a back injury that required treatment from the trainer on court, and Henman took full advantage to eventually win through 6-2 6-2 in one hour and 26 minutes. Incidentally, the match-clinching moment was another ace straight down the middle that brought the 3,800-strong crowd to their feet.
Speaking after his victory, Henman told reporters: "I need to win some of these smaller events to help me win the bigger ones. I'm the first to admit that until now at this level, I've underachieved."
Liam Apicella
