Tennis: Felgate has faith in Henman

Tim Henman can still go on to win Wimbledon, according to the man who guided his career for almost a decade.

The "mutual" decision to end his partnership with long-time coach David Felgate was formally announced lastnight.

But the benefit of their relationship had been called into question for some time.

Under Felgate's guidance, Henman had claimed seven ATP titles, reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon twice and attained a career-high world ranking of fifth.

Yet critics felt British number one Henman should be achieving more given his natural talent and was seen too often to fail to produce the goods when it really mattered.

"It's a shame, because it is something that has gone on for nine years - but is also a sense of relief because he won't have to keep answering the questions about should I or shouldn't I be his coach any more," Felgate said.

"We have had a lot of good times and some great moments at Wimbledon and maybe the time is right.

"There were some extremely high points and hopefully he can go on now and get back to those high points."

The shock announcement came just days after the 26-year-old had put in a tremendous display to help Great Britain thrash Portugal 5-0 in their Davis Cup match at Birmingham.

And Felgate insists Henman can go on to eclipse their achievements together, including success at the All England Club.

"I remain positive that he can do it," said Felgate. "He has made two semi-finals, two quarter-finals and played a great match against (Mark) Philippoussis last year.

"If he plays well and gets a bit of luck in the draw, of course he can do it because he has been so close before."

Felgate revealed he was looking forward to continuing his coaching career, but insisted that their decision to split had not been down to external pressure.

"It's a mutual decision," he said.

"We have both been true to Tim's career and he's continued onwards and upwards and we both know that it is not journalists' questions that has brought this on.

"The time is right and everybody will move on from this. Hopefully he will have lots of success in his career and I will in mine.

"People can stop asking questions about his coach and focus on his tennis and get behind him.

"In our nine years together, we have been through many ups and downs.

"He gets a lot of unfair criticism. Nine years ago people would have been only too pleased to see a British player doing what he was doing and hopefully he can go on to bigger and better things."