Fears that British No 1 Tim Henman could be forced to miss Wimbledon were allayed on Tuesday when a scan on his injured shoulder revealed no major cause for concern.Specialists told the serve-volleyer that the recent pain he had been experiencing had been caused only by inflammation to his tendon and was not a repeat of the injury which led to arthroscopic surgery last year.Weekend newspaper reports had speculated that the shoulder could play havoc with his Wimbledon preparations, even causing him to miss the tournament for the first time since his 1994 debut.That would have been a crushing blow to the 28-year-old who has reached the semi-finals of the grasscourt Grand Slam four times in the last five years, his best performance at any of the four major tournaments.But elbow and shoulder expert Paul Calvert told Henman the good news on Tuesday after the player had undergone an MRI scan in London on Monday.As a result, Henman returned to claycourt practice at the All England Club, Wimbledon, where he was on court for an hour on Tuesday afternoon.“The specialist told me that it was clear from the scan I had yesterday that the recent pain had been caused by inflammation which has now dispersed,” Henman said.“I’m obviously very relieved that the problem wasn’t more serious. He also explained that there is an element of wear and tear but that is to be expected when playing a sport such as tennis.“As well as hitting balls again it’s very important that I continue my re-hab and strengthening exercises to safeguard against these sort of problems in the future,” he told his personal website.Henman has now accepted a wildcard into the 380,000 euro Munich BMW Open in a bid to get some claycourt match practice ahead of the remaining Rome and Hamburg Masters Series events and the French Open.The Munich event begins on April 28, the week before Rome. Henman’s ranking has slipped from No 8 at the end of 2002 season to 22nd in the world this week.He will slip further when next Monday’s rankings come out having missed this week’s Masters event in Monte Carlo where he reached the semi-finals last year.He has played only four tournaments since returning from shoulder surgery last November and won just one match all year. (Reuters)
