JUST like fish and chips, Coronation Street and the Royal Family, building up then knocking down our sporting heroes seems a tradition that appears destined to be forever synonymous with England.

Only last week the undoubted talents of teenager Wayne Rooney were called into question after a lacklustre display in a meaningless friendly against Japan.

His performance was punctuated by a much publicised, but relatively minor, show of petulance and, all of a sudden, the majority of our fine nation wondered whether Everton's wonder kid should be included in Sven's first XI.

Five days and a wonder goal later and Rooney is once more heralded as the saviour of English football, which is the kind of responsibility Tim Henman has carried throughout his career in the sport of tennis.

There is a difference, however. Whereas we still harbour reasonable hopes of ending 38 years of footballing hurt, English tennis seems beyond salvation.

Henman, therefore, is an anomaly - a world-class English tennis player - who needs to be appreciated while he is still around

It is widely acknowledged that Fred Perry was the last great player from this island to swing a racquet but I'm sure his range of leisure-wear would be more successful today than the leisurely style of play he would have employed to win Wimbledon titles 60 years ago.

Perry would certainly never have faced a serve as powerful as that of Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic or Mark Philipoussis or have retrieved as thunderous a return as those delivered by Andre Agassi or Lleyton Hewitt - all contemporaries who have achieved tennis greatness at various stages during Henman's quest for Grand Slam success.

Whatever the respective merits of Perry and Henman, it appears that the English public might have to wait another 60 years for a worthwhile successor to the current world number seven.

Our naturalised Canadian, Greg Rusedski, is these days a distant 146th in the rankings and the remaining English-born players will, once more, be hoping for a favourable draw to make the second round this month at Wimbledon.

In another era, Rusedski's cunning ploy to acquire British citizenship would have made him a tennis great in this country.

He was just unfortunate that Henman emerged at the same time to render his odd venture into the second week at SW19 as mildly exciting rather than the stuff of legends.

Henman, however, continues to be a consistent semi-finalist at Wimbledon and, last week, reached the last four of the French Open on a clay surface that is unsuited to his game.

He has never professed to being the world's number one player and should not be criticised for not achieving such a difficult goal.

He could not have had stiffer competition in any quest for world domination or in his annual effort to satiate a desperate English public by winning Wimbledon and, simply, performs to the best of his ability.

Henman's mental strength was, once more, placed in doubt during Friday's Roland Garros semi-final as he lost to Guillermo Coria despite taking the first set off the Argentinian ace, who had won 47 out of his 49 previous matches on clay.

His perceived lack of bottle - another phrase this country almost exclusively likes to label its sports starts with - seems harsh considering the five-set triumphs he has thrilled the English public with over the last decade and appears to stem from the infamous rain-interrupted, painful Wimbledon semi-final defeat to Ivanisevic in 2000.

Perhaps the only sporting crime Henman is guilty of - aside from the beard he attempted to grow in Paris last week - is not being the world's greatest player in a sport where the odds against English success are stacked against him.

His all-round game is possibly as good as any other player on the planet but Henman probably suffers from not possessing that one weapon in his armoury - Sampras' booming serve or Agassi's angle-defying return - that makes the great players the best.

But without him - and at 29 he will soon be contemplating retirement - the English public can prepare for an influx of ordinary overseas players with Oxford-born grandmothers looking to capitalise on the marketing gap left by Henman's departure and contest the dubious honour of being Britain's number one.

TKO was written this week by Dave Flett

Updated: 10:01 Tuesday, June 08, 2004