Britain’s second most successful open era player Tim Henman will join BBC Sport’s team of experts for coverage of this year’s Wimbledon Championships. This year Britain’s most successful open era player Greg Rusdeski has joined the BBC’s rival tv broadcasting team on Sky.

Today Henman said,

I’m delighted to be joining the BBC team this year, It’s exciting for me to return to Wimbledon in a non-playing capacity.

BBC TV executive producer of Wimbledon Paul Davies added:

Tim was an incredibly popular player and the success, drama and passion he experienced at Wimbledon has created a unique connection with both the Championship and British tennis fans. Returning to SW19 with the BBC team seems the perfect fit and his on-court experience will add a fascinating dimension to our coverage. We hope this will be the start of a successful partnership between Tim and the BBC.

Henman won 11 ATP career titles and reached four Wimbledon semi-finals in five years between 1998 and 2002, whilst Rusedski won 15 titles and went one better reaching a grand slam final at the US open. Both will be hoping that fellow Britain can go one better and overcome the huge burden of expectation and win a grand slam. Murray, a winner of 5 ATP titles at the age of 20 is well on track to eclipse both Greg and Tim, whether he will ever win a grand slam we will have to wait and see. 

BBC Sport will broadcast Wimbledon until 2014, the have sign a new five-year extension to their current deals. The rights will incorporate TV, radio, broadband and for the first time the BBC iPlayer.

The dierctor for sports at the BBS, Roger Mosey said,

We are deeply proud of historic ties with Wimbledon, but this is focused on state-of-the-art digital services. We’re determined to make the event an even bigger part of our national sporting life through the use of new technology and working with the club to innovate across digital platforms

Perhaps the biggest part on what the BBC offers is the ability again for digital viewers to enjoy extensive extra coverage of the Championships via the red button, which will also now be available on broadband.

The BBC first screened Wimbledon in 1937, the new contract will also enable coverage of the two major courts, Centre and Number One, on the BBC’s Higher Definition (HD) channel.

Ian Ritchie, Chief executive of the All England Club, was looking forward to the new deal,

Like the BBC, we are always looking to bring The Championships to a wider audience at the same time as improving the overall quality of the coverage. Through the latest digital technology Wimbledon fans can choose to stay in touch with all the drama and action in a way that suits them best.

Brad Gilbert has been speaking to the BBC’s five live programme on Andy’s fitness and progress in his preparations ahead of next weeks last grand slam of the year, the US Open.

“The last couple of days we have had our best practice in a long time, We are hoping every day will get a bit better and hopefully he will be able to work his way into the tournament.”

As we all know Andy injured is wrist back in May and has been struggling to to gain any form in any of his come back tournaments.

The big hurdle for Andy seems to be the mental side, the Doctors have given him the all clear, but that means it’s up to Andy to fully believe his wrist is back to 100%. Gilbert said

“The pain is gone and now it’s about muscle memory and getting back out there and getting back into a good daily routine of what we had before. This week has been a real step forward, no question. It’s been his best week of practice in a long time … he has got to trust the people that are telling him what to do but he is the one pulling the trigger.”

The US Open is Andy’s favorite surface of the 4 Grand Slams and he will be hoping to do better than last years 4th round loss to Nikolay Davydenko 1-6, 7-5, 3-6, 0-6.

This will only be the second Grand Slam this year for Murray after missing both Rolland Garros and Wimbledon through his wrist injury. Andy also reached the 4th round in Melbourne at the beginning of the year losing in a tight match to Rafal Nadal 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 3-6 1-6.