The British tennis baton was officially handed to Andy Murray yesterday, no more strings attached. Tim Henman’s retirement announcement, confirmed in a room of about 40 people, most of whom were pointing cameras at him, came and passed within half an hour and he disappeared from view a trifle too quickly.

“I was a good player who worked hard, gave everything I had to my profession and I don’t think you could ask for more than that,” was his assessment — and there you have Henman in a nutshell.

Those who have been raised for the past 15 years on the flavourful diet of his exploits, as noble and understated as they always were, cannot quite believe that, after the Davis Cup World Group qualifying tie against Croatia in September — at Wimbledon of all appropriate places — he is riding off into the sunset.

It was coming for a while. His mind and body were telling him so, but he could not quite make himself accept it, clearly for a couple of tournaments too many. Had he said that he would stop after this year’s Wimbledon, having played such a spellbinding first-round match, winning 13-11 in the fifth set over two days against Carlos Moyà, of Spain, it would have been decidedly apt. But he soldiered on, with the inevitable reawakening of his back problems on the American hard courts and the realisation that the sport was passing him by.

His decision leaves a void that, as of today, one man looks capable of filling and Murray has arrived in the Big Apple hardly in the rudest of health, with his knee giving him as many problems as the wrist that has caused such despair since May. These are difficult times, but, as Henman said, that is part and parcel of being a sportsman.

He has been that all right, all career long. Unless he reaches the fourth round of the US Open and wins both singles rubbers against Croatia, Henman will finish just short of 500 singles victories on the main tour and as of today, to include matches at levels such as Challengers and Futures, he has won 615 and lost 336. On all surfaces, including clay and in tie-breaks, he was on the plus side. And grateful British tennis was for it all.

For those who do not appreciate this sport and are therefore unwilling to give him the necessary credit for reaching four Wimbledon semi-finals, the same stage of the French and US Opens and a highest ranking of No 4, a good deal more have first-hand knowledge of what it has required.

His impact was not lost on Murray. On his website last night, the Scot said: “Tim has been a massive part of British tennis over the last decade and I wanted to acknowledge that. I don’t think people fully realise what an amazing career Tim had. If you make six grand-slam semi-finals, four of them at Wimbledon, and get to No 4 in the world, you’re pretty damn good.

“We’ve been really lucky to have him representing us and I’ve been really lucky to have him as a team-mate. He’s been a legend as far as British tennis is concerned and I hope that he stays involved because we need people like him around.”

David Felgate, Henman’s first professional coach, for 8½yesterday:<NO>“The biggest compliment that can be paid to Tim is when you see how he is regarded by players like Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt, who, when they talk about him, commend what he achieved and how long he stayed in the world’s top ten.

“What I admired about him was that he left no stone unturned and whatever he needed to do, whether it was when he practised, played and decided to get rid of coaches — and he did with me — it never stopped him striving to be as good as he could be.”

That element was picked up by David Lloyd, the former Great Britain Davis Cup captain, who, in partnership with the financier, Jim Slater, conceived the scheme in the mid-1980s that set out to find and nurture potential champions and whose prized pupil was a skinny lad from Oxfordshire who had a will of steel.

Lloyd said: “My father \ used to have a go at me because I had one method of finding which players would make it and it had nothing to do with how they hit the ball. I’d make them run until they dropped and I was always clever enough to know if they were faking. Tim never faked, never skipped a training session and never gave anything less than everything he had. Those who say Tim didn’t have bottle are talking bulls***.”