British No.1 was disqualified from Wimbledon in first round after shocking rule violation ...Middle East

Emma Raducanu once dreamed of being a Wimbledon ball girl – not knowing the role is the enemy of being a British No.1.

Raducanu has emulated Tim Henman in taking ownership of Aorangi Terrace and nearly mirrored his most famous rule break at Queen’s.

The 22-year-old kept herself warm during her 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Qinwen Zheng during a break of play by smashing a practice serve down the court – and fortunately didn’t strike any ball girls.

At Wimbledon, her fans will pack out ‘Raducanu Ridge’, which is still commonly known as ‘Henman Hill’.

The iconic banked area in the grounds of the All England Club was once synonymous with Henman for his exploits in the late 1990s.

However, it all could have been so different for the 50-year-old, who was once thrown out of SW19 for hitting a ball girl.

At just age 20, two years younger than Raducanu, Henman became the first player in the Open era to get defaulted at Wimbledon.

Hours after losing to defending champion Pete Sampras in the singles, the ex-Brit No.1 was involved in a first-round doubles match.

Henman and partner Jeremy Bates were leading Henrik Holm of Sweden and Jeff Tarango of the United States 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, while locked in a tie break to decide the 4th set, when tempers flared.

After forfeiting the third point, Henman vented his frustrations by belting the ball in anger, hitting Caroline Hall on the side of the face as she was collecting a ball from the net.

“If I had hit the girl in such an incident, I would have been thrown out of tennis,” Tarango said afterwards.

“With the speed of the ball, it could have killed the girl.”

Following a delay, Henman was defaulted by umpire Wayne McKewan for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the worst was still to come.

Tournament referee Alan Mills was called to Court 14 and incurred the ire of a 1,800-strong crowd by officially defaulting the Brit pair.

It was only the third time in the Open era that a player had been disqualified from a Grand Slam event, and the first at Wimbledon.

Henman, close to tears, held a press conference later where he insisted that the shot was completely accidental.

“I was not very happy to lose the point and was angry.” said Henman. “I went to put the ball down the other end of the court. Just as I did, the ball girl ran across and as I hit the ball it hit her on the side of the head.

“It was a complete accident,” he added, “but I’m responsible for my actions.”

On Tarango’s claim that the speed could have killed the girl, Henman replied: “I disagree with that. If I had missed the ball girl, if she had not been there, I don’t think I would have got a code violation.

“There was no one in line with the ball before I was about to hit it. As I hit it, she ran straight out in front of me so I’m the responsible party.”

A statement from the referee’s office revealed that the ball-girl, Hall, was taken home to undergo a thorough medical examination.

She had initially fallen to the ground following Henman’s strike, but then ran to her usual position in tears before a doctor was called.

Hall told the Guardian in 2008: “You’re trained to just carry on no matter what, so that’s what I did. I didn’t feel that bad and besides I was 16 and I didn’t want to lose face.

“I didn’t think any more of it until Bates came over, then all of a sudden the tournament referee, Alan Mills, was on court and it was chaos.

“I was sat down and got an ice pack on my face. Apparently the ball was clocked at 92mph, and it did hurt a bit, but I’d have carried on if I could. No one asked my opinion, but I was saying, ‘No, no, don’t disqualify him.’

“Nothing was meant by it at all, it was just bad timing that meant the ball hit my head instead of going into the net. Alan Mills was really quite angry with him, which didn’t seem very fair. After a few minutes, the umpire announced that the match was over. The crowd was booing; it was really terrible.

“Henman was supposed to come to my house the next day to say sorry, but there were loads of photographers outside, so we did a press conference at Wimbledon instead, and he gave me some flowers.

“I was back on court the next day. I’ve not spoken to him since but, if I got the chance, I’d say I’m sorry and I don’t mean to keep cropping up.”

Henman went on to reach the semi-finals four times at Wimbledon, admitting that the ordeal was one of the reasons behind his success.

“I’d played matches at Wimbledon before then, but that was the first time I made an impact and it was for all the wrong reasons,” he admitted in 2010.

“In hindsight, it was a very steep learning curve regarding the media. It was a nightmare for 36 or 48 hours after that.

“I was the first player to be disqualified from the tournament for 120 years and I thought, I’m going to have to make sure I have some good results because I don’t want to be remembered like that.

“It was another motivation to make sure I played well at Wimbledon. I was lucky enough to play a lot of my best tennis on centre court.

“I beat French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, I beat Roger Federer and played Pete Sampras in successive semi-finals.

“I have some amazing memories; some of my biggest achievements and some of my most disappointing loses.”

20 years later, it could be Henman giving Raducanu her flowers at Wimbledon – but hopefully this time, with tears of joy.

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