Justine Henin-Hardenne is at it again.........on the brink of her second title at Roland Garros. Unbeaten on clay this year and on a 23 match winning streak. She is back with a bang. If not for the mystery virus that kept her out the whole of last year, I'm sure she would have more grand slams in her kitty by now. And hey, she just turned 23. I know that might sound old when compared to her tall, slender, blonde russian teenaged compatriots. But, I think her best days are still ahead of her.
She looks and feels stronger from the injury and seems to be hitting the ball harder than ever. But the thing that has changed about her is her thought process on court. She no longer tries to outrally or outgun her opponents. There is a lot more thought that goes into the points, a la Hingis. Hingis had to play intellingently every point to have any chance coz she lacked the strength to rally with the Williams, Davenports etc. But Justine has the strength, the groundstrokes to do that. If she starts working her points out, she can be devastating.
And how can I write something about Justine without talking about the most outrageously gifted backhand in all of tennis. Its even hard to imagine where she generates all the power and control over a single-handed backhand like that. Anybody who plays tennis will know what I'm talking about. There are very few moments in sport when you realize that you are overwhelmed by the sheer joy of what you are witnessing......A Mark Waugh cover drive, a Michael Jordan fadeaway, a Ryan Giggs shimmy, a Pedro Martinez fast ball, and a Justine Henin-Hardenne backhand...........poetry in motion!!! You could watch it all your life.
I'm not even watching her matches on TV, yet I realize how much I've missed the diminutive Belgian's play. There is no way in the world I'm going to miss her final on Saturday, not because of the prospect of her lifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for the second time but for the sheer joy of watching her play tennis.
2 comments:
Chey so sad Karthik! I fail to understand why ppl call you 'scene'. The finals was good and the first of Henin's matches I've seen. Whether her play is poetry i know not; do know for sure your post sounded like one and Henin's set to rule Womens Tennis for a while now.
Rohini
Its very rare for a female player to have a single handed backhand. I can remember Navratilova. Graf too but she used to slice which doesnt count.
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