Sunday, September 17, 2006
Henin-Hardenne stirs more controversy
Well well well... Justine Henin-Hardenne has not been getting things easy. A few months ago, she was under critics from many in the tennis world (including current and former champions) because of her decision to stop the match midway through her final against Amelie Mauresmo in Melbourne. That decision had put a very strange taste in most fans, and probably much worse in Amelie Mauresmo's as she would always have a little reminder about her first grand slam win, a reminder about how she did not have to play a full match to win it... Months later, Justine still persisted in saying she had made the right decision...
Then, a few months later, another controversy, this time not as much against her, although initially it certainly was. Days before the Fed Cup semifinals, Justine was battling hard in Wimbledon trying to win the title but she was also saying she'd be playing (as planned) the semifinal. Wimbledon ended and still nothing was announced, but then, a few days later, she said she would not be able to play because she was exhausted. She was under fire from all over the tennis world and in Belgium more than anywhere else. She did not respond until her coach, through her official website, explained that in fact she had told the Belgian Tennis Federation over a week prior to the announcement that she would be unable to play but the federation had asked her to hold the news as it hoped no top players from their opponents, the United States, would join in the tie as a result of Justine's announcement. The Federation did say it was sorry and it hoped for Justine to play in the final...
Belgian fans were relieved, but that was even more true when her all star teammate Kim Clijsters was forced to withdraw from the event because of a wrist injury... Still, with a US Open run that went on, fans wondered, but Justine assured she would be playing, and she did indeed show up. All of tennis knew she needed to play very well in order to give Belgium a chance in the final, and so she did. After seeing Kirsten Flipkens drop the opening match on Saturday, Justine rallied to win back-to-back matches against the top 2 Italian players and thus give Belgium a 2-1 lead...
After another disapointing loss for Flipkens, Justine was asked to play the doubles match... She and Kirsten fought hard but in the end, Justine's body gave out and she was forced to withdraw in the 3rd set. "I could not stay on court for another point," the French Open champion said. "It was like a ball blasted me at the back of the knee." Sadly for her and her fans, given everything that happened this year, she will doubted and criticised for her decision to stop even though we can imagine that with only one set to go, she probably had to be in a lot of pain to stop....
Still, this will be talked about for a while....
# posted by Pierre : 3:02 PM
