Justine Henin: Gets Life!

Justine Henin shocked the tennis world by announcing her retirement from the game just prior to the onset of the 2008 French Open. The 25-year-old Henin was the former No. 1-ranked player on the women’s tour, where she was expected to repeat as champion. 

Her game was as compact as her small frame, yet she packed a powerful punch. She was cocky, self-assured, and a fierce competitor. She served bullets and had one of the best single-handed backhands in tennis, male or female. 

Her forehand, however, was considered her weapon of choice. Many referred to her as the Roger Federer of the women’s game because of her accuracy, speed, and arsenal of weapons, including her delicate but athletic net-play ability. She had impressed John McEnroe from the beginning of her career.

Henin won seven grand slam titles on every surface except Wimbledon—she also won 41 WTA singles titles and over $19 million in prize money.

Yet, it was hard to dismiss the vulnerability hiding just beneath the bold front. Masked by intense bravado, Henin sheltered the timid and insecure little girl hidden from view. She played tennis to avoid life—it was her escape valve from an intensely unhappy personal situation.

Her mother, who was a staunch supporter of Justine’s tennis, died when Henin was 12 years old. Justine and her father did not always see eye to eye on her tennis or on her choice of boyfriends. They had a permanent parting of the ways over Justine’s attachment, and later marriage, to Pierre-Yves Hardenne in 2002. 

Luckily for Justine, she had secured Carlos Rodriguez as her coach shortly after her mother’s death in 1995. He became like a second father to her, serving her not only as a guide on the court but also offering her support in her personal life.

It was her intense desire to reach the top of the women’s game that kept her focused and drove her to bulk up her tiny frame as much as possible in order to stay on the court with the giants competing against her—the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport, et al.

Justine was driven to succeed.  In 2003, she began the year ranked as No. 5 and ended the year as the No. 1 player in women’s tennis. 

In fact, 2003 became the turning point in her career, but it did not bode well at the beginning as she lost to fellow countrywoman Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the Medibank International Series in Sydney—then lost to Venus Williams in straight sets in the semifinals of the Australian Open.

A breakthrough came in Dubai where Henin defeated Monica Seles for the first time in her career—4-6, 7-6, 7-5.  Another momentous victory came when Henin defeated Serena Williams, then current world No. 1, at the Family Circle Cup Championships in South Carolina. It was Serena’s first defeat after 22 wins.

The high point came at the French Open where Henin defeated Kim Clijsters in the final in straight sets. She won her first grand slam title and became the first Belgian ever to win a major singles title.

She met Clijsters again in the 2003 U.S. Open final and again defeated her in straight sets. The win cemented Henin as the No. 2 player in the world, just behind Kim Clijsters. 

It was her victory at the Australian Open in 2004 that marked her permanent arrival, catapulting her over the top as she achieved not only the No. 1 ranking but in the process accumulated 7,626 points, the highest in the history of the WTA rankings.  Many think this mark will never be equaled. 

Unfortunately, nothing is easily won or lasting in the professional game. Her health began to falter. The remainder of 2004 became a black hole for Henin as she lost her ranking and spent much of it trying to recover her health. 

Through it all, with her coach by her side, Henin never quit believing—and in her mind she knew she would succeed again to the top of the game.

It took her until the 2005 French Open to regain her form. In the final, she defeated Mary Pierce in a lopsided contest, 6-1, 6-1.  She had entered the tournament as the No. 10 seed. The win moved her up to No. 7 in the WTA rankings. She remained perfect on clay.

A hamstring injury depleted her for the rest of 2005. The injuries and the resulting time off did nothing to improve Henin’s spirits or temper her struggle on and off court, where her personal life was beginning to fail.

2006 found Henin returned to the game anticipating her own rise back to the top.  She reached the Australian Open finals. Unfortunately, she retired in her final match with Amelie Mauresmo due to a stomach ailment.  She was severely criticized for this because no one retires in a grand slam final. 

Henin won the French Open again in 2006, defeating Kim Clijsters but lost the Wimbledon final to Mauresmo. Henin also lost the U.S. Open final to Maria Sharapova—but in making the finals became the first woman since Martina Hingis in 1997 to reach the finals of all four majors in a calendar year. 

She ended 2006 as the No. 1 player by reaching the finals of the WTA Championship, where she defeated Mauresmo—Henin’s first win in this event. While victories on court were converging to propel Henin back into the tennis spotlight, her personal life was plummeting to an all-time low.

In January of 2007, Henin withdrew from the Australian Open and announced to the world that her four-year marriage was over. 2007 would also see Henin reunited with her estranged family, openly embracing their participation in her life again.

In 2007, Henin captured another French Open title as well as another U.S. Open championship. She won both without dropping a set. In fact, she had not lost a set at the French since 2004. 

In October of 2007, she sewed up the year-end ranking as No. 1 for the third time in her career. To cap it off, she won the WTA Championship to repeat her feat of 2006. She was undefeated after Wimbledon and the only woman to accomplish that since Graf in 1989.

She started 2008 as the No. 1 player and in March became the seventh female player to hold the No. 1 ranking for 12 consecutive months. 

However, she lost the Australian Open to the eventual champion, Maria Sharapova, in the quarterfinals. She was struggling, losing other early matches unexpectedly, and finally she withdrew from the Family Circle Cup citing fatigue.

Abruptly, she announced her retirement from tennis on May 14, 2008 and requested that her name be removed immediately from the WTA rankings. She was still ranked No. 1 and still expected by most to win the upcoming French Championships.

It stunned everyone. One can speculate that Henin, after 20 years of playing tennis, felt free to face life on her own terms, and live it, finally and fully. She had scaled the heights to the top many times and felt, perhaps, unwilling or unable to sacrifice in order to do it again.

Reunited with her family and at peace with her inner demons, she could leave the game that sustained her for so long. Life called her out, and she went willingly...