Tim Henman brushes up for Wimbledon return by showing he's a big hit

Tim Henman quit tennis nearly 20 months ago and has barely picked up a racket since.

The gruelling schedule of the ATP Tour had taken its toll on his body, restricted the time he could spend with his family and his serve-volley style had become somewhat antiquated in the game today.

Faced with a new crop of young emerging talent and the dominance of Roger Federer, retirement aged 33 was the sensible option with the BBC commentary box, wife Lucy and their three children waiting.

On Sunday, however, Henman will return to his spiritual home to play an exhibition event - with Kim Clijsters, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf - to mark the unveiling of Wimbledon Centre Court's new roof. The 15,000 tickets sold out within minutes and so Henman dusted off his gear and arranged all the practice time he could, including a short hit with me, in west London this week.

After a brief warm-up in which he immediately identified the weaknesses in my game, a competitive tie-break ensued.

Against the odds, a big serve out wide earned me the first point. Sure enough, Henman took the next seven with some masterful shotmaking that proved the punch remains in his strokes and that trusty backhand is as fluent as ever.

"Since retiring I haven't really played at all," he said. "For six weeks I have been training physically and in the last three weeks I have been hitting balls. I am getting there and I've had a few practice sessions this week. I think my reaction to playing again is a reflection that when I stopped 20 months ago, it was the right time for me. I was struggling with a few things injury-wise. Having not missed it at all and not hit a ball for 20 months, I think that just underlines that it was right.

"When the All England Club came to me with the proposal, I told them I would need time to think about it. But I just knew in my heart that there was no way I could say no to it.