Tim Henman has named his favourite match of the 2024 season.
Following the conclusion of the Davis Cup finals a long yet exciting tennis campaign has now come to an end.
While legends bid an emotional farewell, some younger stars established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in the years to come.
Fans were treated to some spectacular matches over the course of the last 12 months, and one that particularly sticks out for former British number one Tim Henman took place at the US Open.
What is Tim Henman’s favourite match of 2024?
There were plenty of outstanding tennis matches that took place in 2024. There was an additional set of matches given this was an Olympic year.
The Paris Games produced one of the season’s best matches when Novak Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz to finally become Olympic champion.
But Henman selected a match from the US Open, when Dan Evans defeated Karen Khachanov in five hours and 35 minutes, the longest match in the tournament’s history.
“Dan Evans vs Karen Khachanov. It was crazy. Evans was coming into the US Open with not much form and hadn’t won many matches. He was playing awful,” Henman told the Sky Sports podcast.
“But Evans is a fighter and a competitor. He is never going to give up and slowly he started to turn it around. He played amazingly in the third and fourth sets to get back on level terms.
“You are thinking wow this is an incredible come back. Before you knew it he was down 4-0 in the fifth, 15-40 on his serve to go down a triple break. He then holds serve and six games later he has won it 6-4 in the fifth in the longest match at US Open history.”
Tim Henman issues Emma Raducanu ranking prediction for 2025
While on the Sky Sports Tennis podcast Henman spoke about another British player in the form of Emma Raducanu.
She was limited to just 35 matches this season, but Raducanu had a strong finish to 2024 after representing Great Britain at the Billie Jean King Cup finals.
She claimed wins over Jule Niemeier, Rebewcca Marino and Viktoria Hruncakova in Malaga, but Great Britain were eliminated in the semi-finals.
With more matches she can certainly cause some damage on the WTA Tour in 2025, and Henman thinks if Raducanu can play more consistently, her ranking can go so much higher. “I think the challenge for Raducanu is around physical resilience,” he told the Sky Sports Tennis podcast.
“Raducanu has had a decent year going from 300 into the top 60 but when you look at the amount of tennis she has played, she hasn’t played a great deal.
“So if she builds up that resilience, every time she steps on the court she was playing good tennis. Therefore top 50, top 30 in 2025 is completely realistic.”
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