New love game for Tim Henman

Tim Henman is facing one of his greatest challenges - and this time it has nothing to do with tennis.

The British Number One was today displaying his usual unflappability at the news that he is about to become a father.

He and his wife, Lucy, 30, are expecting their first child in October, but he let it be known through his agent that his schedule will be unchanged. He will still be competing in a series of international tournaments in the run-up to Wimbledon at the end of June.

"It's fantastic news. It's a big responsibility but one which both Lucy and I are really looking forward to", Henman, 27, said on his website where he broke the news before preparing to fly to Monte Carlo to play in a clay court Masters Series event on Monday.

The couple, who live in Barnes, married in December 1999 after meeting earlier that year when TV producer Lucy Heald - as she then was - interviewed him for a documentary about his career. Henman has attributed much of his success in recent years to the stability of his relationship with Lucy. She tends to avoid the tennis party circuit, preferring to spend her evenings dining out or going to the cinema with her husband.

Educated privately at Farnborough Hill School, Hampshire, she has a social science degree from Durham University and is described as discreet, poised and self-assured.

Henman has said: "She's not a tennis girl - that's not the sort of person I want to be with. We talk about everything, except tennis. She has her own career and it's every bit as important as mine."

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