Henman is aiming to be seeded at Wimbledon in 2007

The British veteran, ranked 39th, was plagued by injuries this year.

But he described his back, which caused him prolonged problems this year, as "fantastic", while the knee that has affected his form is "about 80 or 90%."

"I've been practising a lot and been working very hard," said Henman, who beat Mark Philippoussis 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in an exhibition match on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old will head straight to Melbourne a week before the Australian Open, without playing any warm-up events.

The level of tennis I played in individual matches was inside top-20 level Tim Henman

But he hopes to improve his ranking sufficiently in the first five months of the year to earn a seeding for Wimbledon.

"Having played Roger Federer twice early on in a couple of 'Slams', I know how you can really benefit from being seeded," he said.

"I have played around 20 events this year. Add another couple, and if you are playing well and winning that's plenty of tennis.

"My health is the issue. As you get older, physically it gets harder and harder.

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"But I feel the way I played in the last six or seven weeks of the season was a big positive for me.

"I had a lot of good individual matches with wins over players like Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin, and that is encouraging.

"Over the year, I've felt I didn't do a lot - but I still managed to finish 39. If I could pick three or four matches and turn the defeats into victories I could well have been around 25.

Tennis has dominated my life for so long I might like to do something completely different Tim Henman

"The level of tennis I played in individual matches was inside top-20 level. But the consistency wasn't there, and that's something I need to work on."

Henman welcomed the involvement of his coach Paul Annacombe in the Lawn Tennis Association's new "Tennis Leadership Team".

And he indicated he could be involved in coaching youngsters in the future, once his own career is over.

"I would like to think there's going to be plenty of opportunities," he added.

"I feel tennis has dominated my life for so long that I might like to step off and do something completely different. But it's also my passion, and I do think I have something to offer.