[新聞] Belgian show of fire and ice hits the lawns for first time
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/wimbledon2006/story/0,,1812851,00.html
Belgian show of fire and ice hits the lawns for first time
Paul Weaver at Wimbledon
Wednesday July 5, 2006
There are rivals who embrace with affection and others who put their arms
round one another in the manner of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty on
the Reichenbach Falls before their grapple took them over the edge to their
presumed deaths.
Somewhere in between come the Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim
Clijsters, who will be playing each other for the 22nd time when they meet in
tomorrow's semi-final. Henin leads 11-10 in one of the most intense contests
in the modern game - but they have never met here before.
It is sometimes presumed that the pair must be great friends. In truth the
intense, very focused, French-speaking Justine and the extrovert, very
popular, Flemish-speaking Kim have never had a great deal in common apart
from their skills with a tennis racket. Their relationship became even cooler
a few years ago when Clijsters' father Leo, a soccer coach and Belgium's
player of the year in 1988, remarked how Henin had beefed herself up.
Recently, playing together in the Fed Cup, the two have probably become
closer - professionally at least - than at any other time. But it will not
show tomorrow as Henin, who has the most complete game on the women's tour,
continues her pursuit of the one grand slam title to elude her.
In a sense, though, there is more pressure on Clijsters because at the ripe
old age of 23 - one year younger than her compatriot - she has announced that
she will be retiring soon, probably at the end of 2007.
Neither Belgian has dropped a set in this tournament but both were given a
tougher time than they expected in yesterday's fourth-round matches.
Henin was up against the virtually unknown French qualifier Severine Bremond,
ranked 129 in the world, and although she won 6-4, 6-4 she was obviously
discomfited by an opponent who served big and attacked the net with gusto,
which lent her something of a novelty value at Wimbledon this summer. The
third-seeded Belgian talked about her skydiving hobby afterwards and implied
that it was a lot less harrowing than this.
In contrast Na Li, Clijsters' opponent and the first Chinese woman to reach a
slam quarter-final, approached the net with the tentativeness of a trout. But
she still hit with brutal power, even if her forehand was always more likely
to break down than her backhand. Clijsters, the second seed, won 6-4, 7-5 but
had a scare in the second set when her service wobbled and she lost five
straight games.
What concerns Clijsters most is that she has lost her last two meetings with
Henin, who beat her on her way to winning the French Open last month and won
again on her way to victory on the grass courts of Eastbourne.
Clijsters, who has only one previous semi-final appearance to show for her
six Wimbledon appearances, said last night: "The last time I beat her was in
Toronto last year.
"It's really important to play aggressive tennis because she's the type of
player who gets a lot of balls back. She's worked a lot on her strength. She
hits a lot more powerful than she used to. She mixes up her game really well
and her slice is really hard to play.
"We get along," Clijsters added, with little conviction, although when pushed
she said that the Russians Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova and
Italy's Flavia Pennetta were players she was more likely to call up for a
chat.
"I like to make friends on the tour. Trophies don't talk to you when you
retire. We all want to win but meeting up with the girls is much more
important."
When the very serious Henin meets the girls, she is usually carrying a tennis
racket.
--
Kim跟juju真是兩個個性截然不同的人
最後兩段正好顯示了兩人的強大對比...
--
Size doesn't matter.
--- Justine Henin-Hardenne
--
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