TIM HENMAN preferred not to attend the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year bash this month and could hardly bring himself to watch it on television. It was not that his 2005 contribution would have merited barely a mention but because the British No 1 has never been at ease having to make suited social small talk.

Oh yes, Britain’s No 1 tennis player. He is the guy no one writes about any more, except in guessing-game pieces about when he will be overtaken by that Scottish youngster with the hair (or the Canadian).

Henman, 31, began the year ranked No 6 in the world and ended it, back aching, a rib fractured, focus blurred, retired from the Davis Cup, his earliest defeat at Wimbledon in a decade and beaten by Andy Murray in the first round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tournament in Basle, at No 37.

To get 2005 in proper perspective means rewinding the clock to September 2004, when Great Britain lost to Austria in a World Group qualifier in Portschach. Henman was beaten in straight sets in the first singles, lost his unbeaten doubles record with Greg Rusedski and recovered from losing the first set 6-0 to defeat Jürgen Melzer in the first reverse singles, only for Rusedski to succumb in the fifth match.

“This came at the end of my best year (he reached the French and US Open semifinals) and I was mentally and physically exhausted,” Henman said. “I came to a full stop. The cumulative effect of such a year meant I didn’t have the proper preparation for 2005 and so, in hindsight, what has happened this year, when it all caught up, is no surprise.

“I didn’t have the desire, the energy or the motivation to play, or the physical wellbeing required to put in the work necessary to compete. I was playing on pure stubborn resolve. Sometimes I’d say to myself in mid-match, ‘What am I trying to do? I can’t run to my forehand, I can’t hit my serve.’ Then the competitive streak kicked in, I had been to grand-slam semi-finals, I’m a top- ten player and that was the trigger to say, ‘Come on, keep fighting, find a way.’ But I couldn’t.”

A month’s break, bouncing children on his knee, unwinding — could that not have been the time for serious contemplation of the pleasures of retirement? “There were times in 2005 I was sick of tennis, but I looked at it in the context of over 20 years’ competing,” Henman said. “My school holidays used to be about which tournaments I’d play in. It’s human nature to get just a little bored with it and that is the first time it had happened to me.

“I appreciated the time I got to spend with my family. Being a Dad is something I love — Rosie was 3 in October and Olivia has just turned 1 — but I still have challenges I cannot ignore. I have just had a thorough physical at a brilliant medical centre in France.”

Was he nervous about what they might find? “My rib was still hurting and breathing too hard irritated it, so I hadn’t done anything cardiovascular, I hadn’t done any lifting or played any tennis, so I thought they might say, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be an athlete?’ On the other hand, I went there fresh and eager. They’ve given me an analytical breakdown of what I am good at, what I need to improve on and what I have to do to keep my body in the best possible shape.”

Paul Annacone, his coach, has just returned home to the United States after two weeks spent overseeing Henman’s preparations at Bisham Abbey, Buckinghamshire. “It’s been difficult for him because I’ve been hurting and he doesn’t want to hear ‘I can’t really run for that, Paul, because my back’s playing up,’ ” Henman said. “The last couple of weeks my body’s been in good shape and we’ve worked on the aspects I need. I’ve been serving with more freedom, there are a few ups and downs with the rib, but I’m ready.

“What drives me on? The challenge. The challenge of proving to myself that I can regain my old levels of play. I look at [Andre] Agassi. Why is he still playing? Does it matter to him that he finished No 7 when he used to be No 1 — in that context, it probably does. But he loves doing what he does, challenging himself all the time, and who has the right to tell him he should stop? “I’m realistic — 2006 may not be a bundle of laughs. If I didn’t think my body was up to it, if my back was chronically bad and I wasn’t able to compete properly, I wouldn’t. I don’t say my situation will change overnight. I’m not expecting results to come in Doha [where his schedule starts from January 2], or Australia. It’s going to be a process. I know how difficult it is. I’m against the best guys in the world and I haven’t played like one for quite some time.

“Now is the right time to say this — 2005 was difficult to judge because I wasn’t right. As for 2006, I will not judge it after one week, after Australia, after Miami, after Wimbledon. I’ll judge myself at the end of the year. That is the time for mature reflection.”

By which time, Murray could be in danger of being buried beneath a welter of media infatuation. “To have three players challenging to be British No 1, that’s fantastic and would I still want to be that at the end of next year? Of course,” Henman said. “But in the context of what I want to achieve, it means little. You guys will make a huge deal of it, but that’s the warped environment we live in. There is little or no balanced judgment. Andy is no angel and he’ll make mistakes, but is what happens to him going to be a repeat of what I’ve had to endure, especially this year? I fear it might.”