Henin Overcomes Hiccup
Henin Overcomes Hiccup
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Justine Henin-Hardenne, the third seed and holder of the French Open title,
was made to work harder than she would have liked in dismissing the challenge
of the Italian, Flavia Pennetta, a 21-year-old from Brindisi who was making
her debut at The Championships.
Although she eventually ran out a comfortable 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 winner in one
hour 12 minutes, the Belgian was made to struggle in the opening set when she
would clearly have preferred an easier outing.
This was explained by the strapping Henin-Hardenne is wearing on her left hand,
the non-racket hand which she injured in the final of the grass court
tournament in Holland last weekend. It was clearly troublesome, affecting her
ability on the ball toss and in balancing during shot-making.
Henin was also clearly bothered by the hard, flat hitting of the Italian, who
is 55th in the world rankings, but strikes the ball cleanly and deep to the
corners. At first it appeared Henin would enjoy a stroll when she broke in
the opening game as Pennetta netted an over-ambitious drop shot.
The Italian, though hampered by a tendency to double-fault on big points,
was at her best when attacking the Belgian's serve, reduced in speed by her
hand problem. They exchanged two service breaks but when Henin broke to love
to take a 5-4 lead the first set appeared wrapped up.
Pennetta clearly thought otherwise, capturing the Henin serve for the third
time in the set and then holding on to force a tiebreak. Here she floundered
for the first time, falling 4-0 behind and collecting only two points. The set
had lasted 49 minutes and Pennetta had perpetrated 22 unforced errors.
Having seen her best passing shots cut off because she was not striking the
ball hard enough, Henin tightened her game and her attitude in the second set
and ran away with it. Pennetta grew despondent and the set was over in 23
minutes, but the third seed will not be happy with a first serve percentage
of just 51 per cent.
Written by Ronald Atkin
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