Tim Henman's last act as a professional athlete took place on Saturday 22 September, when he steered Britain into the World Group of the Davis Cup, securing the crucial third point in their 4-1 win over Croatia. When the former British number one woke up on Sunday (with a hangover after the first of many, many retirement parties he has planned), he was not quite sure what to do with himself. But he was still a member of the team and, as such, he had interviews to give, places to be, speeches to deliver and his team mates to support as they wrapped up the match.

"It's definitely going to take a long time to actually sink in," Henman said. "I woke up on Sunday and I definitely felt as though there was a release of pressure. But I have still been questioning myself, what am I going to do today? Am I practising today? Or tomorrow? Have I got to be in the gym? But I suppose that's only normal as it's been such a big thing in my life for some many years that it's going to take a certain amount of time to get over that routine.

"It's bizarre. Even when I haven't done anything for a day there's always been a reason. It would be a rest day and I'd need time to recover to train the following day.

"I'll be at home now. I'm sure I'll be on the school run. I'd quite like to just sit at home. I'm sure there will be a lot of things to do. But it will be good just to be at home and have no idea and have no plan and to be able to mess around in my garden or go and play golf and not have any structure to it."

The rest of British tennis, meanwhile, is trying to readjust to a life without Henman. He has been the focus of attention on these shores for the past 14 years. For the best part of eight of those years he was ranked in the world's top 10, winning 11 singles titles and four doubles titles, banking $11.6million in prize money, reaching six grand slam semi finals on three different surfaces and keeping the Great British public on the edge of its seat.

Even Henman admitted that his matches ought to come with a government health warning. For a man who took the policy decision early on to say nothing of note to anyone, to shy away from controversy and to keep himself very much to himself, Tiger Tim is the ultimate showman. Not for him the tedious, if solid, groundstroke upon which to build his game; not for him the percentage game of the baseline grind. Henman took the British public on a 14 year white knuckle ride of sublime talent and terrifying derring-do. It's no wonder the picnic area at Wimbledon is known as Henman Hill – we all need a sit down and a cup of tea after that.

We should have known, of course, what we were in for back in 1996. He burst into the national consciousness at Wimbledon as a spindly 21-year-old, by beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov, then the French Open champion, in the first round. Even so, he was two sets up before finally closing out the win in five. No one could ever accuse Henman of failing to give his adoring followers value for money on the ticket price.

From there the Tiger roared regularly in SW19, reaching the quarter finals eight times. He won four of those encounters only to run into Pete Sampras twice, Lleyton Hewitt and, most memorably of all, Goran Ivanisevic in the last four. Of those, his rain-sodden, three day epic with Ivanisevic in 2001 was probably his best chance of winning a grand slam title. He was in control when the rain stopped proceedings on the Friday, both he and Ivanisevic were exhausted and fraught when the rain finally relented for a spell the following day and by the time the match had been won and lost on the Sunday morning, Henman was just numb. Ivanisevic went on to win the title in a blaze of glory while Henman sat at home.

"I have no regrets but I have disappointments because I think that's a better way of reflecting on my career," Henman said. "My biggest disappointment, no doubt, was the Ivanisevic match but what would do differently? I played a great match, I dropped my serve twice in five sets, he served 35, 36 aces. We played over three days – we all know the scenarios, but that's sport. At the end of the day it didn't go my way. Is that disappointing? Yeah, it's very disappointing but I just don't second guess myself."

At the US Open, as he announced his impending retirement, he had said that a couple of good performances at the Davis Cup and a British win over Croatia would allow him to walk away from the sport that had dominated his life 27 years as a happy man. Wimbledon was his favourite place to play and the Wimbledon crowd was his favourite audience to play in front of. When the moment came, Henman turned in two cracking matches and the crowd responded by sending him off in style. Of all the 942 matches he had played over the years, the final two meant more to him than all the others put together.

"The feeling that I had over the whole weekend - the way that I played on a personal level - it was such a great memory to have," he said. "It's something I will hold with me for ever. It's been a fantastic weekend."

Henman has never been one for sentimentality and has few mementoes of his career other than his trophies. But when a couple of the Wimbledon ground staff asked him if he would like the net from his final match, his eyes lit up. "It was a really nice touch," he said. "To have something like that, with the wooden net-posts which are pretty rare, will be special."