There were questions. Lots of ’em. Perhaps too many for a seven-time Slam champ and former No. 1. Heading into the ’11 Aussie Open, just 12 months after Justine Henin had reached the final in Melbourne, the second career Belgian let her guard down and revealed, whether it was intentional or not, that maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t the supremely confident world-beater we thought she was after all.
“I would say I’m not 100 percent,” Henin candidly explained. “When you’ve had a break, you come back with a lot of questions and a lot of doubts, and I’m quite an anxious person. My nature is not to be really confident. Even when I was No. 1 —winning everything — every time I was walking on the court I had so many questions.”
As it turns out, at least from a physical perspective, she wasn’t 100 percent. Fact is she never really got over the right elbow injury she suffered, ironically, during a fourth-round loss to compatriot Kim Clijsters last year at Wimbledon. Henin missed the remainder of the ’10 campaign, and when she did return, as her coach, Carlos Rodriguez admits, she wasn’t herself. She wasn’t the artisan attacker that we had all gown to admire over the past decade. In her third-round loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova at the AO, she lacked an ability to dictate points.
“When she moves back, Justine Henin isn’t Justine Henin — she’s 30 or 40 in the world,” Rodriguez asserted.
Now the former Olympic gold medalist is hanging up her racket once again. But this feels different. When she first retired in March 2008 — becoming the first woman in the history of the sport to retire while ranked No.1 — we couldn’t help but think that she would one day come back. And she did, reaching the Aussie final and capturing titles in Stuttgart and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. But this time it feels more permanent.
On her official website, Henin said she is ready to turn an “incredible page of my life…What a wonderful trip, I have experienced during all these years. Today I am calmer and I can create positive and rewarding look back on this experience in my life.”
“Justine Henin will go down as one of the greatest female athletes of her era,” said WTA CEO Stacey Allaster. “We’ve all been fortunate to once again have had the opportunity to witness the beauty of her game during these many past months, and no doubt we will miss seeing her on court competing like only Justine can.”
Henin is a winner of 43 WTA singles titles and was ranked No.1 for a total 117 weeks (seventh all time). She has amassed more than $20 million in career prize money and is leaving the sport with a win-loss record of 527-116. But the diminutive, 5-foot-5 aggressor might be best remembered for her spectacular one-handed, sweeping backhand, incredible athleticism and her pound-for-pound/best-in-the-biz mental fortitude.
