Justine Henin’s comeback year in review
Kim Clijsters got the fairytale when she ended her “retirement” from tennis last summer, but fellow Belgian comeback queen Justine Henin has found things much tougher in her, now concluded, first year back on the professional circuit.
Henin returned to tennis to high expectations this January after quitting the sport in May 2008 but her comeback might well be regarded as solid rather than spectacular, and this season at least has ultimately ended in disappointment with the elbow injury she sustained at Wimbledon sidelining her for the remainder of 2010.
“It still is a slow recovery so I need to be patient again until the end of 2010!” Henin said on her website last week, adding that she hopes to get back to practice in October to prepare for the 2011 season.
With that, the curtains came down on a season that began with much promise, but ultimately fell short of delivering on it.
Henin had walked away from tennis as the reigning world No. 1, turning her back on the chance to claim a fourth consecutive French Open title, and returned to two consecutive runner-up performances in Australia at the start of the year, whetting tennis fans’ collective appetite for the remainder of the season.
Clijsters – who won the US Open title three tournaments into her comeback last year – was all that stood between Henin and the title in Brisbane, and the 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(6) scoreline indicates just how close the 28-year-old came to claiming victory in the first tournament of her return.
Then came her charge to the Australian Open final, which Henin lost to Serena Williams in three sets. It was a statement by the current world No. 1 that things had moved on a bit in her absence, but it was a gap that seemed bridgeable for the Belgian, who had called on all the weapons in her all-court game – that magic single-handed backhand and unrivalled touch both playing their part – to down the in-form Elena Dementieva in a high quality second round match.
As it turned out, the only way wasn’t up for Henin, who again found herself coming off second best against Clijsters in the Miami semi-finals and broke her left little finger practising for the Fed Cup during April before losing her singles rubber to 126th-ranked Kaia Kanepi.
It was an injury Henin carried into Stuttgart, where her return to clay also marked her first title for the year, with Sam Stosur falling to Henin in a three-set final, where the latter’s forehand deserted her for a large chunk in the middle before returning just as suddenly to help her seal the win.
A first-round loss to Aravane Rezai in Madrid – who blasted her way past Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Venus Williams to claim the title – completed Henin’s French Open preparations, but despite that hiccup hopes remained high that the former champion would make a successful return to her favourite Grand Slam.
It wasn’t to be the case as eventual runner-up Stosur took advantage of Henin’s vulnerability when it came to ramming home an early advantage and closing a match out to turn a one set deficit into a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory and bring the four-time winner’s 2010 French Open to a premature end.
Winning Wimbledon and completing a career Grand Slam though was the stated aim of Henin’s return, and a grass court title in the Netherlands in the lead-up was the ideal prepration.
By the time Henin arrived at the All England Club with six months of hard graft behind her, however, she was under no illusions that this would be the year it happened, saying: “I'm very realistic as it's a year of transition... I hope it become a goal one day and true. But it's still very early to think about this.”
As it turned out, it was again Clijsters who ended Henin’s title hopes, claiming a three-set fourth round victory and building her dominance over her Belgian counterpart in part two of their careers, but it’s the elbow injury Henin sustained in that loss that has had the more lasting impact on her season.
It may not have been the glittering comeback that many anticipated, but Henin still ends her 2010 season ranked as the world No. 14 (which may slip by season’s end), with two more titles to her name, and with a solid platform from which to launch her 2011 campaign.
It’s not yet been the dream comeback, but it’s certainly been a decent start.
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