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Q. How pleased are you to get off to a winning start at this time? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: It's always good to win a first match like this. The conditions were pretty difficult for all the players today. I'm not thinking about the fact that I came here, that I won last year. What happen last year is far away from now. I just try to stay focused on the job I have to do on the court, match after match. That's what I did today. Very happy with the start I had. Q. Can you talk about the match, also the conditions, the weather conditions. JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, it was tough for all the players today. It's not easy. It's pretty cold, freezing out there. Very windy. It's not easy, especially for a first match because you need some confidence. So it was pretty difficult. But it's probably the best match I've ever served, I mean, with a high percentage. So with this wind, it's not too bad for me. No, very happy with the start I had. It's always tough to play a first round in a Grand Slam, especially in these conditions. But it's the same for everyone. You need to forget about that and just stay focused on your game and what you have to do on the court. Q. How are the courts playing? Sunny, sprinkles, cloudy. JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: The courts are pretty good. I didn't feel there was a problem on the court. It wasn't that heavy, not too fast. Good court out there. Q. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the conditions when you're preparing for the match, what you might be seeing out there? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Today the most important thing for me was to stay warm. I decided to play with long sleeves. That doesn't happen very often for me. Yeah, you need to be careful in this kind of weather. You can get something very easily, a cold or something like that. Before the match I've been very focused on what I had to do. It was clear in my head, trying to be a little bit aggressive, even if I couldn't do it all the time. I've been very focused during my preparation. I had a great week last week for preparing for this tournament. Now I just have to go play my game, see what's going to happen. Q. Can you comment on the French tennis crowd? You play all over the world. Are they a little different? Are they passionate in a different way? What kind of welcome do you feel they give you? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, it is different. I had great moments here, especially on the center court. The French crowd always gave me a great support. I feel a little bit like home here. That's a great feeling. Today, again, I could feel they were behind me a hundred percent. That's a nice feeling. It's the passion. They know about tennis. Sometimes, you know, they distract a little bit the players, but it's part of the game. We know here it's Paris, it's a bit different. It's okay. I like it. Q. Do you adjust your string tension for the different conditions? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, I did put less tension. Q. How many pounds less? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Just one kilo less. I tried it at the warm‑up. That's something I don't do very often. But in Berlin we lost 10 degrees in two days. I did the mistake of not changing my tension. I was feeling like I couldn't hit the ball as hard as I did the days before. Today I said it's pretty cold out there so I'm going to try something else. I was feeling good with my tension on the court. THE MODERATOR: Questions in French. Q. Very simple question. How does it feel to be back in the French Open? How do you prepare for the first round when you won last time? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Well, how does it feel? I feel that the years are going by very quickly. I feel that 2005 was yesterday. You meet the same people again. You meet the entire staff. You start thinking it's been one year, gosh. I always try to prepare to be ready for the emotional effect in view of my history here in the French Open. I try to forget about the previous years. Any victories, any titles, any trophies that I have, they're at home. I'm not going to lose them. The defeats have also happened. It's difficult. But you can't change the past. You have to think about the future, concentrate on the present moment, take matches one at a time. That's my philosophy. Of course, you can feel emotional. That's normal. This is a very special place for me. I think everyone knows this. Q. You say you get ready for the emotional aspect. Do you use the emotions? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yes, of course. This is a place where I like to come back. This is probably the tournament that I look forward to most in the season. I think it's like that for everyone. There's always a favorite place. For me it's Paris because of everything that's happened here, both positive and negative. There's a lot of good memories. There's a lot of strong emotions. It's always wonderful for me to come back here. It's also close to home. As a Belgian player, it's also very special to me. Q. What are your best and worst memories here? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: That's very difficult. My victories here, of course junior or pro, of course. 2003 was very special. This was probably the best moment, that's for sure. The most difficult moment, there's been two. Both occasions where I lost first round, second round, 2002, 2004. Those were difficult moments. That's the past. I try not to think about it too much because you don't live with the past; you have to look to the future. That is what great players do. That's what I'm going to try to do. Q. How does it feel to come back on clay? You get the feeling there's less and less playing on clay, even though you like to play on clay before coming here. What about your readapting to clay, is it different? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: There's never been too much of a problem to come back into my game on clay. Sometimes I become a little bit too passive. I'm not sufficiently aggressive in the beginning when I'm back on clay. You've got to find the right balance between patience and being aggressive. Over the past years, I haven't had a problem with this. I think I've always readapted well to clay, to any surface. It's one of my qualities, to be able to adapt my tennis because I have a number of weapons in my game that enable me to develop a different game on different surfaces. Obviously, clay is what I control best because that's what I learned on, because I like to build my points, and I need time to organize my game. But all the elements are favorable for me here on this surface. But physically it's also the most demanding surface. You have to be really fit to really make headway here in the French Open. Q. Do you feel strong this year? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yes. Every time I come here. I usually follow the ideal preparation. You have to manage your little health problems, so this is what I've been able to do. It's very positive. I'm very motivated, of course. I come here, I really want to play. That is the most important thing. Q. Your slight apprehension before first rounds that you had in the past, has it gone or does it still happen? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Well, I realize that I'm no more nervous before a first round than before a second or third. It's a very disagreeable sensation, but it's also necessary. When I'm no longer nervous, probably the day will have come to just give up and put my racquets away. But today it's still the case. Every time I have to play a match, I feel a bit nervous. That is what enabled me in the past to play great tennis, when I managed to control it. It's not always easy to manage this feeling. The nervousness suddenly doesn't disappear with the years. I think that's a rather positive thing. Q. You say you have to manage slight health problems. Do you have any health problems? What about your shoulder? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I've been living with this for years. It's just something I have to look after on a daily basis. Some days I do feel the pain, but I play with it. Obviously, if I don't look after it, it could lead me to give up my career someday. I'm very careful with it on a daily basis. I look after it, then since that injury in Berlin, I've also got my right ankle to look after. I do look after it. There's nothing major. Q. The last Grand Slam didn't go too well for you. Is this something you apprehend, the injuries on Roland Garros? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: No, I don't usually look back. That's not me. I avoid to think about what happened in Australia. I think I discussed it sufficiently. I don't think about it. This is the French Open. This is different. It's six months later. As I said, I'll say it again, I want to look to the future. Q. Were you a little bit frightened when you injured that right ankle? Is it serious? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: No, it's not serious. As I said, I twisted my ankle I think in the second round in Berlin. Since then, I've sprained it two or three times. My right ankle is a bit weak. I didn't tape it today. I think I need to take precautions, think about it in the future. It's not a serious problem. I'm not too worried. Q. Have you seen that Petrova has been eliminated? JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I heard that. I wasn't paying much attention because I have my own second round to look to. That's the only thing I need to look to now. That's it. I don't think there's anything I need to comment on. Visit the Justine Henin-Hardenne page here
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