Update: Justine Henin’s Retirement Final
May 14, 2008
This is an update to the original Justine Henin retirement story which is below this update.
Justine Henin says her retirement is final and unlike other athletes there will be no returning to the game she loved:
“This is the end of a child’s dream,” said Henin, the first woman to retire from tennis while atop the WTA rankings. “This is a definitive decision. Those who know me know it is serious.”
“It is a new beginning for me. I feel like I already lived three lives. I gave the sport all I could and took everything it could give me,” she said. “I take this decision without the least bit of regrets. It is my life as a woman that starts now.”
“At the end of the match in Berlin, (retirement) all of a sudden was there as something evident,” Henin said. “I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it.”
Wimbledon, the Grand Dame of the Grand Slams, was the only major that eluded Henin. But not even the allure of adding a Wimbledon plate to her trophy case was enough to force Henin to play through June and into early July this year.
“Winning Wimbledon would not make me happier than I am,” she said. “I could never dream of Wimbledon. It was destiny. I didn’t feel myself capable. It was too much for me.”
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Today, world’s number one-ranked women’s tennis star Justine Henin will announce that she is retiring from the game, according to the Belgian newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad.
Though she has won twice already this season Henin, 25, appeared to be in a slump this season having lost to Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone. Last week she lost in the third round of the Berlin Open to Dinara Safina, and pulled out of this week’s Italian Open has seen her results.
After her loss to Safina Henin seemed to be befuddled and frustrated by her sudden lack of confidence:
“What I am have just gone through is not very reassuring.
“I was hoping to rediscover my confidence, and it is not easy.
“I don’t know if something is broken, but I seem to lack the ability. I need to think about.”
The seven-time Grand Slam winner (four French Opens) and Olympic Gold Medalist (Athens) will make an announcement at a news conference on this afternoon. There is, though, the possibility that her break may not be permanent.
Henin, the reining French Open and U.S. Open champion, has topped the women’s rankings for 61 consecutive weeks now, since March last year.
The Belgian is retiring a year after her countrywoman, Kim Clijsters retired. Clijsters is now married and is a mother.
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It’s as if Henin has lost her grit. That , more than anything else, is what made her the best woman’s player over more naturally gifted players like the Williams sisters and Amelie Mauresmo.
To be fair, Henin is a smaller player. She moves alot better than most of the other women on tour. The problem for her is that the women’s tennis game is going the way of the men’s. Taller players with bigger serves, and less returns and volleys. To me, tennis is a much more beautiful game when the players actually have to move. Henin can still play, but she’s also been through a lot at her age. (Marriage, divorce, estrangement from family, re-uniting with family) It just might be her time to start on the decline.
I lost my breath for a moment when I first saw the headline. I went to The Tennis Channel to check out the French Open news when I saw that Justine Henin announced her retirement. I am so upset about this because I was hoping that she would win again and break her own record, and Monica Seles’, of most consecutive wins. She will be missed…by me, the rest of her fans and all things related to tennis. But I hope that she starts to feel better.
I call bullshit. We’ll wait and see why she really quit…hmmm
Des, Henin was never better than Venus or Serena. Venus and Serena’s beloved older sister, Yetunde’, murder coincided with their both acquiring bad injuries: Serena’s knee and Venus’ bad abdominal muscle pull. Before they took time off, they were dominating everyone. Including a very “skinny” Henin. Serena was trying to win back-to-back French Open crowns 2003 (on clay her worst surface). At that time clay was Henin’s best surface. Serena was unbeatable and met Henin in the semi’s. She was having a bad day but still beating Henin– the French crowd (in an infamous, shameful episode) suddenly turned on her — after Henin held up her hand for Serena to wait before serving. Serena was about to serve when the chair umpire said, “second serve,” Serena corrected him and said it was her first serve because Henin had asked he to wait. The umpire didn’t see it, so he asked Henin. The bitch pretended like it didn’t happen. Serena complained a little and the French crowd (you know those people who make ape sounds at black soccer players) took the opportunity to cheer her errors and become a mob. The commentators at the time were Mary Carillo, Mary Jo Fernandez (and some other clown) both called bullshit and remarked at how unbelievable it all was. Carillo called Henin “classless.” Serena lost her concentration. Up to that time, Serena prided herself on being a fighter, but she was reminded that day that she was still a very young girl (20). She left the court in tears. During the after-match analysis the commentators said that Henin’s win was a direct result of the crowd lynching. And Fernandez added this “..Serena was already having a bad day. She was playing on her worst service, and then the crowd injects itself into the match. Yet she was stilll up and about to get the win. That’s how good she is.” It was infamous, and Henin was excoriated. Her coach admitted that she cheated and that Serena should have been given a second serve. At Wimbledon, the next tournament, Serena crushed her, and she went on to meet her sister Venus in the final where Venus played despite shredded stomach muscles that took her championship form away from her for almost two years. She later admitted that she didn’t want to quit playing, because she knew people would say her father fixed the match so Serena could win but hat the decision destroyed her game for two years. Later that year Yetunde was murdered. Venus and Serena were off the tour. Henin went on to grow big muscles and win her grand slams. Serena and Venus after all this time are back. Serena is once again a world beater. She’s healthy and hungry . She beat Henin badly at a big tournament this year. Last year tennis writers and commentators were trying to pretend that Henin was beating Serena fairly in the three grand slam quarters where they met. Serena was injured at Wimbledon. We all saw when she toppled to the ground with a pulled muscle. She also badly hurt her thumb. But she still beat a girl ranked in the top ten and then met Henin in the quarters. Massively bandaged she played the match. But she didn’t have her second biggest weapon, her backhand because her thumb was hurt. All she could do was slice the ball back — anyone could see she was going to lose — what we didn’t see was that she was STILL going to take a set off of Henin. That’s how bad she is. Henin has been known throughout her career to cheat, and she once quit during a FINAL of a slam — the Austrailian Open — when she was losing. She claimed her tummy heart. Amelie Mauresmo was robbed of experiencing her first big win. But that’s what Henin did rather than lose. Mauresmo went on to beat her anyway at Wimbledon. Only one tv commentator spoke truth last year while Henin was winning all those matches. Corina Morariu, a cancer survivor and former player. During a match her booth partner was waxing greatness all over Henin and of course talking about what a flawed player Serena is. Morariu said “henin is benefitting from the other top players not being healthy,” That’s why she won all those titles last year. Well Ree-Ree is back. So is Venus. And so is the overrated Sharapova. Henin is a selfish b____. Rather than face the prospect of order being restored and her taking third or fourth place in the order, she quit., which she’s done so many times in her career.
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