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Justine Henin-Hardenne (born June 1, 1982, Liège, Belgium)
is a former World No. 1 ranked tennis player from the Wallonia (francophone)
region of Belgium. She is well known for her marvelous one-handed backhand,
a stroke that John McEnroe has called the best backhand by any player in
the world, female or male.
Family life
Her official name was (and still is) Justine Henin before
her marriage with Pierre-Yves Hardenne on November 16, 2002, in the Château
de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne. She uses the name Henin-Hardenne on the tennis court
but as Belgian law does not provide for a wife taking on the name of her
husband, she legally still is Justine Henin. They live in Monaco, when not
on tour.
Her late mother, Françoise Rosière, was a French
and History teacher. She died of intestinal cancer when Justine was only
12. Justine has two sisters : Sarah and Florence (deceased) and one brother:
David. Her father is José Henin.
Tennis career
Justine, known as Juju to her many fans, has been coached
by Carlos Rodriguez since she was 14. She regularly reached late rounds of
international competitions and won five ITF tournaments by the end of 1998.
She started her professional tennis career in the WTA tour in May 1999 as
a wildcard entry in the Belgian Open at Antwerp, and became the fifth player
at that time to win her debut WTA Tour event.
Justine established herself as a major competitor in 2001.
She reached the semifinals of Roland Garros, the final of Wimbledon and was
ranked number seven by the WTA at the end of the year, with three titles
to her name.
In 2002, she won two more WTA titles, reached four finals
and finished the year as a top 5 player. Her German Open victory in May 2002
was particularly noteworthy, as she beat Jennifer Capriati in the semi-final
and Serena Williams in the final.
2003 was the year when Justine asserted her dominance on
the WTA tour. On June 7, 2003 she won her first Grand Slam tournament, the
French Open, defeating her Flemish compatriot Kim Clijsters. On September
7, 2003 she won her second Grand Slam tournament, the US Open, once again
against Kim Clijsters. She reached the final by defeating American Jennifer
Capriati in a semi-final battle of extremely high quality, winning 7-6 in
the final set. In that match, which finished after midnight in New York,
Capriati came within 2 points of victory no less than 11 times, but Justine
refused to be beaten. On October 19, 2003 she achieved the number one ranking
on the WTA list, taking over from Kim Clijsters. She was named the International
Tennis Federation's women's singles World Champion for 2003.
Before the 2004 season, Justine again trained with strength
and conditioning coach Pat Etcheberry, who in the past has been the fitness
guru for other world-class players like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier
and Jennifer Capriati. The remarkable changes in her body and improved strength
caused unsubstantiated anabolic steroid use rumors to swirl. On January 31,
2004 Justine won her third Grand Slam at the Australian Open, again defeating
Kim Clijsters in a three-set final. She confirmed her world number one form
by winning two more tournaments in February and March 2004. Unfortunately,
Justine's health was then devastated by a strain of cytomegalovirus, whose
effect was further complicated by an immunity problem. She often slept up
to 18 hours a day and barely had the strength to brush her teeth, let alone
play competitive tennis. She was seeded first for the May 2004 French Open,
but still ill with the viral infection, she lost her second round match against
a much lower-ranked player, Tathiana Garbin. Justine subsequently had to
withdraw from the upcoming Rosmalen and Wimbledon 2004 tournaments.
Justine came back in August, 2004, somehow finding the strength
to win the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, defeating
Amélie Mauresmo of France. On the way to the gold, Justine rallied
for a miraculous win against Anastasia Myskina of Russia in a semifinal match.
After falling behind 5 games to 1, Justine found a way to win the final set
8-6, confirming her reputation as a great fighter on the court. In September
2004, Justine attempted to defend her U.S. Open title. However, she remained
weakened by the cytomegalovirus and lost to Nadia Petrova in the 4th round.
As a result, she lost the number one ranking that she held for 45 weeks.
Justine then withdrew from the rest of the tournaments in 2004, to recuperate
from the infection. Her plan to rejoin the tour in the beginning of 2005
was delayed when she fractured her kneecap in a training session in December,
2004.
On March 25, 2005, after more than six months of inactivity,
Justine returned to the WTA circuit at the NASDAQ-100 open in Miami. She
lost a hardcourt match to the new Russian star and world no. 2 Maria Sharapova
in the quarterfinals. Remarkably, she captured a title in her very next tournament,
winning on clay at the Family Circle Cup Tier-1 event at Charleston, posting
a victory over world no. 1 Lindsay Davenport, and besting 2nd seed Elena
Dementieva in the final. Later in April 2005, she captured her 21st career
title by winning the J&S Cup in Warsaw, defeating 2nd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova
in the final.
In May, 2005, she avenged her loss to Maria Sharapova, convincingly
defeating her in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the German Open, a
tournament she went on to win over Nadia Petrova. It was her 3rd straight
title on clay, making her a top contender for the 2005 French Open. She was
the 10th seeded player in the tournament, and on June 4 defeated the French
player Mary Pierce to take her second title at Roland Garros; the win was
also Justine's 24th straight match won on clay and her 10th consecutive final
win, a streak stretching back to Zurich in October, 2003. In capturing the
title, Justine managed a fantastic fourth round comeback win over Svetlana
Kuznetsova, saving two match points. She then demolished Maria Sharapova
in the quarters and Nadia Petrova in the semi-final, leaving no doubt as
to who was the best woman on clay. With her French Open victory, Justine
moved to number seven in the world rankings. She joined Monica Seles as the
only two currently active players on the WTA Tour to have won the French
Open at least twice.
At Wimbledon 2005 Justine Henin-Hardenne's winning streak
of 24 matches was snapped in the first round by Greek Eleni Daniilidou (6-7,
6-2, 5-7). With this defeat she became the first French Open champion in
the Open Era to lose in the opening round of Wimbledon.
In August, as No.4 seed at Toronto, she dropped just one
set en route to the final, posting wins over Diaz-Oliva, Zheng, Vaidisova
and No.2 seed Amélie Mauresmo before falling to No.7 seed Kim Clijsters
(7-5 6-1).
At the US Open in September 2005, Justine Henin-Hardenne
lost to Frenchwoman Mary Pierce in the fourth round, in straight sets (3-6,
4-6). Still in September, a right hamstring strain forced her withdrawal
from Luxembourg.
In October, making her first Tour appearance since the US
Open, as No.4 seed she fell in 2r of Filderstadt, after a first round bye,
to unseeded Flavia Pennetta (4-6 3-6). Following this disappointing performance,
she decided to withdraw from Zurich and Linz tournaments. She officially
pulled the plug on her season on October, 31. As expected, the reigning Roland
Garros champion withdrew from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in
Los Angeles due to the hamstring injury that has limited her to 11 matches
since she thoroughly thrashed Mary Pierce, to capture her second Roland Garros
title in the past three years in June.
In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 31st place in its list
of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era. In November, at the 2005 Sony Ericsson
WTA Tour Championships, she was named the inaugural winner of the Whirlpool
6th Sense Player of the Year which honors the player who has demonstrated
the most 6th sense intuition, that is to say heightened intelligence, unbeatable
performance and pinpoint precision.
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