Henman was first picked for Britain's Davis Cup team at the age of 20 and in his ten years of Davis Cup tennis, went on to play a total of 50 games - winning 36 of them.

Henman made a winning start, sealing a point on his debut partnering Jeremy Bates to victory over Romania pair George Cosac and Dino Pescariu, though GB lost the tie 3-2, Bates and Mark Petchey losing their singles.

Henman thrived in the patriotic atmosphere of Davis Cup, never more so than 1999 when he levelled a sensational tie with the USA by beating Todd Martin, though Rusedski's five-set defeat to Jim Courier ultimately cost the Brits.

But by 1999, after so long in the Davis Cup wilderness (Britain had a four-year losing streak from 1991-1995), the Henman/Rusedski double act kept Britain back in the elite level with victory over South Africa in Birmingham.

Against Equador the following year, Lapentti brothers Nicolas and Giovanni exploited the lack of depth in the British squad, Henman's points in vain as debutante Arvind Parmar lost a two-set lead to Giovanni to seal relegation from the world group.

The Brits were back in the elite level by 2002, a patriotic full-house at Birmingham's NEC turning out to watch a strong Swedish side that included that year's Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson - who beat Greg Rusedski in the decisive final rubber.

In the subsequent play-off on the red clay of Casablanca, with Rusedski reeling from his recent positive drug test, Henman once again did all that was asked, overcoming Younes El Ayanoui.

But Henman could only watch Rusedski's mammoth five-set decider against Hicham Arazi, his emotional and physical tiredness ultimately costing him a match that at three hours and 53 minutes is still the longest-ever Davis Cup tie.

A year later it was the same story as Rusedski, forced to play eight sets in 48 hours after a day was washed out by rain, followed up victory with Henman in the doubles with defeat in the decisive fifth rubber to Stefan Koubek.

Captain Jeremy Bates had been forced into using Rusedski again despite the tight turnaround, as he considered understudies Andrew Murray and Alex Bogdanovic too inexperienced to throw into such a crucial match.

As it turned out, Henman's victory over Jurgen Melzer was his last in the Davis Cup. Fitting that he signed off with a win - while the likes of Murray must now make the step up.