Justine Henin’s Wimbledon title chances
Winning Wimbledon was one of the stated aims of Justine Henin’s return to professional tennis, but in the sixth-month of her comeback it’s an ambition that it seems the former world No. 1 may have to harbour for a little longer yet.
Two Grand Slams into part two of her career and the Belgian is yet to add an eighth major title to her impressive CV, after coming within one win of doing so at the Australian Open, where Henin lost to Serena Williams in the final.
After coming tantalisingly close to living up to the hype – such lofty expectations were generated from the outside, not from within – at Melbourne Park, the grind of the circuit has yielded more of a mixed bag for the four-time French Open champion.
The reality of how tough it is to return to the top of a sport, one which Henin exited as the world No. 1 back in May 2008, became blatantly obvious when Sam Stosur inflicted Henin’s first defeat at Roland Garros since 2004.
This was the tournament the 28-year-old had described as her “garden” as she returned for the first time in since 2007. She couldn’t harvest the result many were anticipating, and after her fourth-round loss was quick to lower expectations for Wimbledon.
“I want to go as far as possible over there [Wimbledon],” Henin told reporters at the French Open. “But in 2010, it's probably a bit too early to say, ‘Well, it's gonna be my goal to win it’.”
What, then, should be the realistic expectation for the world No. 18, if it’s not improving on the runner-up performance of 2006, when Amelie Mauresmo won the battle of the one-handed backhanders and her second Grand Slam final against Henin of the year?
How far she goes at Wimbledon may well be determined by when she comes across a Williams sister in the draw. Defending champion Serena holds the 1-0 record against Henin this year (and 8-6 across the duration), but the pair have shared the honours on the two occasions they’ve met in SW19. Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus holds an impressive 7-2 career win-loss record against Henin, defeating her on both occasions they’ve played at Wimbledon, but the pair haven’t crossed racquets since 2007.
As the French Open showed, however, it might not take the big guns to sink Henin’s ship. A player who has developed during Henin’s sabbatical, such as Stosur at the French Open, might be enough.
The positives for Henin are that there is still room for improvement: playing consistently for the duration of a match must be one aim, as she struggles to close out matches with the clinical ease she once would have done.
And for a player of Henin’s proven ability at the Grand Slams, there’s always the chance that everything will fall into place for seven matches at Wimbledon.
It would, on recent form and results, be a surprise if Henin got her hands on the Venus Rosewater Dish this July, but after the French Open, far from the biggest upset we’ve seen this year.
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