By Rob Hodgetts BBC Sport Online

Tim Henman faces a career-defining 12 months as he surveys the results of another season in the top flight of world tennis.

The British number one has hung up his racquet for the year after crashing out of the race for a spot at the end-of-term Masters Cup.

Henman lost to Nicolas Escude in the final Masters Series qualifying event in Paris and saw Spaniard Carlos Moya take his place in the Shanghai finale.

And now the 28-year-old Briton stands at the crossroads of an illustrious, if not world-beating, career.

Henman's priority, other than spending time with wife Lucy and new daughter Rose, is to mend the damaged shoulder that hampered the latter part of the year.

He has vowed to get the required treatment done in the off season, even if he is forced to miss the Australian Open in January.

"Now this season is out I'm going to make sure I get it right," he said. "If that means missing Australia, I've just got to do that.

"It's tough enough when you're 100% fit. When you're not, you're in big trouble."

The sands of time are running out on Henman's chances of landing a Grand Slam title and his best chance, of course, comes at Wimbledon.

In SW19 he has reached the semi-finals in four of the last five years, compared to a best-ever finish of last 16 in any other Grand Slam.

But he must grudgingly accept that the 2003 season is make or break.

In the modern era, only two out of the 17 Wimbledon winners - Goran Ivanisevic (29) and Arthur Ashe (31) - have been older than Henman is now when they landed the title for the first time.