Tennis players: Tim Henman

These days, 36-year-old spends more time with his putter than his racket. Playing scratch golf (which means he’s seriously good) he’s a regular on the pro-am tournament circuit, partnering the likes of Colin Montgomerie.

But the recent Aegon Masters tournament marks the return of the six-times Grand-Slam semi-finalist to half-serious tennis.

Tim, his wife Lucy and their three young daughters, live in a large Georgian house just south of Oxford.

On the edge of the village of Aston Tirrold, near Didcot, the Henmans paid about £2m for the five-bedroom home in 2003, complete with a cottage, three acres and of course and of course a tennis court.

Today’s valuation is getting on for £3m. Tim has doubled his career earnings of £8m into a fortune of about £16m partly by dabbling in property with a small syndicate that includes his agent Jan Felgate and developer Philip Moross.

In 2005, they sold the listed Old Essex House for £3.2m, banking a £2m profit. The player has had interests in flats and houses in Barnes since his Wimbledon playing days, and is also an investor in a scheme of 18 flats and a hotel that Moross is building at Grindelwald in Switzerland.

Tim is also an ‘ambassador’ for The Hideaways Club, a fractional ownership scheme that allows investors to share in a portfolio of properties around the world.

For an upfront cost starting at £132,000, plus an annual £7,000 to £14,000, investors can spend up to six weeks a year in one of 29 luxury properties in exotic locations like Tuscany, the Alps, Marrakech and Mauritius.

He’s quoted as saying, ‘I don’t want the upkeep and hassle of owning a home abroad so having access to a portfolio this diverse, without any responsibility, is fantastic.’ In the property stakes, as he was as a player, Henman is the British number one.