Justine Henin Returns to the WTA Tour!

MrKen's favorite female player has returned! I posted at length about Henin's rumored return on Sept. 3--

http://mrken45sworld.blogspot.com/search?q=Henin+shock+return

--and she has already beaten one of the top players--Nadia Petrova. The following selected copy appeared on 'Yahoo Sports' @ 4 hours ago:

Henin Returns with Win at Brisbane International

By JOHN PYE, AP Sports Writer 3 hours, 43 minutes ago

• BRISBANE, Australia (AP)—''Justine Henin played as if she never left. She didn’t even make it to her first post-match news conference since coming out of retirement before talk began about when she’ll win an eighth Grand Slam singles title.
• 
  

Henin beat second-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the Brisbane International on Monday, the former No. 1’s first official tour match since announcing her comeback in September.

“I feel better today than when I retired, that’s for sure,” Henin said. “Better emotionally, mentally. Better with myself, and that makes a big difference.”

She is preparing to make her return to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 18.

Henin abruptly left the tour in May 2008 after spending a total of 117 weeks at No. 1, winning seven major championships, an Olympic gold medal and 41 WTA titles overall. Now she is back, perhaps inspired by another Belgian, Kim Clijsters, who returned to the tour after about two years away and promptly won last year’s U.S. Open.

The 27-year-old Henin said she might be in stronger physical shape than she was 20 months ago. She certainly felt better psychologically after Monday’s victory, which followed exhibition wins last month, including one over Petrova.

'I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long,” Henin said. “At the beginning, everything seemed very big: the stadium, all the people. I’m not used to it anymore.'...

'...Grand Slam champions and former No. 1 players Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova—taking part in an exhibition event in Hong Kong—both predicted Henin will once again be a force.

“She was a great champion before,” Williams said. “She can keep on playing great tennis.”

Sharapova called Henin’s return good for the women’s tour.'...

For the full story, please follow this link:

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=ap-brisbane&prov=ap&type=lgns

As far as I know, Serena Williams had nothing to say about Henin's return. Henin crushed her in the 2007 U.S. Open, 7-6 (3), 6-1, and was ranked #1 in the world for over 12 months. Williams only offers gratuitous praise to players whom she crushes, but because she is a classless sore loser (see my previous post), S. Williams always finds excuses for her poor play when she loses.--She is never outplayed, in her mind; her opponent was lucky (2007 aforementioned loss to Henin), she was treated unfairly (the "foot fault" controversy), blah, blah, blah...

It would be terrific for the WTA if Justine can quickly get into top form, as Kim Clijsters did at the U.S. Open. I'm looking forward to a Henin-Clijsters match, as well as a renewed competition with the Williams' sisters.

Henin Tipped for Shock Return by Belgian Media!

Allez!

Justine Henin, displaying the winner's trophy for the 2007 U.S. Open, after dispatching both the Williams sisters & solidifying her hold on the #1 ranking--which she held for more than 12 months.
A baffled Serena Williams during her quarterfinal loss in the 2007 U.S. Open to Justine Henin--Clueless & Classless
A Comeback a la Clijsters?

(AFP) – Aug 26, 2009

BRUSSELS — Belgian media were speculating Wednesday on a possible return to women's tennis of former world number one and multiple Grand Slam title winner Justine Henin, 15 months after she retired from the game.

Noting that Henin, 27, is back in training for exhibition matches, several papers have speculated she may return to the circuit as compatriot Kim Clijsters did earlier this summer.

In MrKen's opinion, Henin was the best player of her generation--YES, that includes both of the Williams' sisters!

No less an authority than Billie Jean King said that "pound for pound, Henin is the best tennis player of her generation."

And John McEnroe noted that her "one-handed backhand as the best single-handed backhand in the women's or men's game."

In the 2007 U.S. Open, Henin defeated her first four opponents in straight sets, with a 6–0 set in each match. Henin then faced Serena Williams in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive time in a Grand Slam tournament, and for the third time, Henin won, 7–6(3), 6–1. She then went on to defeat Venus in an exciting semifinal, before winning the final against Kuznetova. Henin won the tournament without dropping a set.

At the time, MrKen posted about Serena's "clueless and classless" comments during a surly news conference in crediting Henin's win to "a lot of lucky shots", and went on to lamely blame her "other interests" for her poor showing--as if Williams was a tennis 'dilettante'.

This post, along with my retrospective look back at Henin's triumph-- "Justine Henin, the 'Class' of the Women's Game", can be found at http://mrken45sworld.blogspot.com/search?q=Justine+Henin

And for the rest of the story from the Belgian press about the rumored comeback, please follow this link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jujpFjkJ7BcnLfw7F_skfUKgruQQ

P.S. Henin even knows how to serve without double-faulting a dozen times in a match! (See the 9/2/09 NY Times front page article (above the fold) on this embarrassment to the women's game and Billie Jean King's befuddlement on its cause or solution in her interview on the Tennis Channel.

Wikipedia on Henin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justine_Henin

Serena Williams Crumbles, Offers Excuses in WTA Moscow Final

The Williams' sisters continue to unravel, and Serena continues to offer lame excuses for her losses.

The following is curtesy of tennis-x.com:

It's a rare post-US Open sight these days in Europe and Asia -- Serena and Venus Williams, both healthy at the same time, in a flurry of tournament activity trying to raise their rankings to both qualify for the year-ending WTA Tour Championships. Unfortunately both sisters are finding it difficult to simply reemerge into tournament play and sweep titles as they've done in past years.

Venus Williams lost this week in the semifinals at Bangkok to unheralded Flavia Pennetta, after losing the Japan Open final a week earlier to Virginie Razzano, neither of which you'll ever see inscribed on a Grand Slam trophy.

On Sunday in Moscow, Serena Williams won the first set 7-5 over Elena Dementieva in the final before the homecountry favorite rolled the American 6-1, 6-1 in the next two sets for the title.

Prior to Sunday's Moscow final, Serena Williams had never lost a set to Dementieva in four career meetings, making a total of 59 unforced errors in the final.

"I made a lot of errors," said Williams, making her signature statement in the post-match conference that she lost the match rather than her opponent winning. "It was me. Every ball I hit I felt was out. It was so frustrating."

Williams broke to begin the third set before losing six straight games and the match.

"She played really unbelievable," said Williams. "She should try to play like that more often."

It was the second 2007 title for the former No. 4-ranked Dementieva, who entered the event at No. 14 on the WTA Tour Rankings. It has been an erratic year for the Russian, who failed to reach a quarterfinal at any of the four Grand Slams.

Williams showed up surprisingly overweight in January at the Australian Open but put on a stunning display to win the title, then won again at her next event in Miami in March. Since then she has failed to win a title in seven tournaments.

To visit tennis-x.com, please follow this link: http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2007-10-14/k.php