The career of Britain’s finest male tennis player for seven decades will come to an end at Wimbledon next month. Tim Henman has made the toughest choice of his life and is retiring from professional tennis. Henman, who will be 33 on September 6 and becomes a father for the third time later in the month, has not entered an ATP tournament after the Davis Cup tie against Croatia on Wimbledon’s No 1 Court from September 21-23, confirmation that he has decided to bring the curtain down on a period of distinction, steadfastness and brilliance, both for himself and his country.

Retirement is never easy to contemplate, especially at such a young age, but six months after Greg Rusedski realised he could not stand up to the rigours demanded and walked into the sunset – moving to a job at the Lawn Tennis Association with an input in talent identification and, at the same time, into the television analyst’s chair – his long-time friendly foe has taken the same view.

Henman, who withdrew from this week’s tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, citing further trouble with his fragile back, will compete at his thirteenth consecutive US Open, which begins in Flushing Meadows, New York, a week today. The hope then is that, in harness with Andy Murray, he can inspire Great Britain into the Davis Cup World Group for the first time since they were relegated in February 2003 – a tie in Australia that Henman missed through injury – with a victory over Croatia in what will become an occasion steeped in tears and troubled thoughts.

Not since Virginia Wade won the ladies singles at Wimbledon in 1977, will the All England Club have reverberated to such a tide of sentimentality as it is bound to do when Henman takes the stage of No 1 Court, on which Britain were beaten by Ecuador seven years ago, one of the most unexpected and embarrassing defeats the British game has suffered in recent Davis Cup history.

It was to Wimbledon that Jane, his mother, brought a seven-year-old Tim to watch Bjorn Borg in 1981, and the boy was smitten. The club has borne subsequent witness to his transformation to sporting manhood, though when he was beaten in the second round of this year’s tournament by Feliciano López, of Spain, in a tense five-set encounter, his hurried exit carried more resonance than we thought at the time.

The sheer despair Henman has felt in the past few weeks as his injuries multiplied and results would not come in the increasingly physical world of men’s professional tennis, meant the Oxfordshire player had lost his spark and his enthusiasm, without which he could not meaningfully compete.

As his ranking is about to tumble out of the top 100 – ignominious to say the least for a man of his talents who reached the world No 4 status in July 2002 – and the chances of it moving upwards are severely limited (Henman had won only five of his 15 matches this year and lost in seven first rounds), he has decided to say enough is enough before his life becomes one of absolute sufferance. Better this, surely, than spend more time getting beaten up – physically and spiritually – while a new child demands significant fatherly attention.

It is understood that Henman has taken advice from those nearest and dearest before choosing to step aside: Paul Annacone, his coach, whose loyalty to remain as a part-time head coach of men’s tennis at the LTA will now be severely tested; Johan de Beer, his long-time fitness coach; Jan Fel-gate, his agent; and those of his high-est-profile sponsors who have stayed loyal to him throughout his career.

The wise counsel is that Henman risks further damage to his morale and his reputation if he decides to hang around and that it is best for him to take a well-deserved rest from sport, enjoy family life and then return to tennis in some capacity, as he certainly will when the time is right.