Henin-Hardenne Wins Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia - In a see-sawing battle of wildly swinging fortunes,
Justine Henin-Hardenne beat fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters Saturday to win the
Australian Open and hold three of the four major singles titles.
Just as she did in last year's Roland Garros and US Open championship matches,
Henin-Hardenne proved too steady at the crucial stages of the match.
The 21-year-old won 63 46 63 in one hour, 47 minutes and in doing so, kept
her No.1 ranking.
"That's been a very emotional match in every way because I was leading, I was
playing well, and then always on the important moments Kim played well," said
Henin-Hardenne. "I was feeling under pressure all the time, and the crowd
gave her a lot of support, which I understand perfectly.
"But it's not been an easy one. I'm feeling very, very happy right now."
Henin-Hardenne is one of only nine women in the Open Era to own three of the
four Grand Slam singles crowns at the one time. Leading 63 42 with a smart
mix of power and touch, she appeared ready to replicate her straight sets
wins in Paris and New York.
"I was feeling very tense, I was feeling very nervous to close the match,"
admitted Henin-Hardenne of her second set lead. "That wasn't easy at all."
However, Clijsters, playing in her fourth major singles final but chasing a
first title, took the next four games to level the match at one set apiece.
The effort appeared to drain Clijsters, who dropped her first two service
games of the third set to trail 4-0 and stare defeat in the face.
But to continue the back-and-forth nature of the match, Clijsters recovered
both service breaks and looked headed to once again even the match in the
eighth game.
"I just told myself, 'Make her play,'" said Clijsters of her mindset at 0-4.
"She made a couple of easy mistakes coming into the net, so you just have to
keep fighting and keep hanging in there. It was good to get back that double
break."
"It was these moments where Kim was the best, because she wasn't missing
anymore," said Henin-Hardenne. "I was feeling she was mentally very strong at
this point. So it's been very close at the end."
A controversial baseline overrule on a Clijsters swing volley gave
Henin-Hardenne a 5-3 lead and she served confidently to close out the match.
"Two years ago, or 12 months ago, this kind of match, I wasn't coming through,
I wasn't winning, for sure," said Henin-Hardenne, who looked supremely fit
all fortnight after a second off-season training with the renowned Pat
Etcheberry in Florida. "Today, I did. So a great evolution."
Henin-Hardenne is now on a 10-match win streak, having become the first
player since Martina Hingis in 1997 to win the Sydney-Melbourne double.
She confessed to feeling the pressure of being seeded No.1 at a Grand Slam
for the first time.
"It was a very hard beginning of the tournament for me," said Henin-Hardenne.
"I didn't play well in the first few matches here at the Australian Open.
Finally, when I had to, I just played my game. I've been focused on what I
had to do on the court."
Clijsters was unbeaten in her past 15 matches, winning her last two events of
2003, Luxembourg and the season-ending Championships.
"I definitely felt like today I played a lot better than I did in the
previous finals that I played against her," said Clijsters.
"I fought it really well to get back in that second set. Even in the
beginning of the third set, she hardly missed any balls. She makes you go for
so many shots which are not natural, I think, for a lot of players. She keeps
bringing them back. You try to go closer to the lines and then you miss a few.
"But that's, I think, where she probably made the biggest difference today.
She brought so many balls back that made me go a little bit out of my comfort
zone."
Clijsters was also runner-up to Jennifer Capriati in the 2001 Roland Garros
final. Had she won the first all-Belgian final at Melbourne Park, she would
have taken back the No.1 ranking which Henin-Hardenne has held for 13 of the
past 15 weeks.
It wasn't an ideal lead-up to the final for Clijsters, who sprained her left
ankle at the Hopman Cup in Perth at the start of January and was forced to
pull out of the adidas International in Sydney to week before the Australian
Open.
Clijsters re-injured the ankle in her quarterfinal win in Melbourne over
Anastasia Myskina.
While the final was the sixth in the Open Era between the Top 2-ranked players
in which the No.1 ranking was on the line, the semifinals featured some
unfamiliar faces at that stage of a major.
Fabiola Zuluaga became the first Colombian tennis player to reach the final
four of a Grand Slam, where she fell to Henin-Hardenne 62 62. Zuluaga
received a walkover in the quarterfinals from No.4 seed Amelie Mauresmo,
who had shown outstanding form in her first four matches.
However, during her hard-fought 75 75 fourth round win over Australian Alicia
Molik, Mauresmo suffered a left mid back muscle strain. The 1999 Australian
Open runner-up was able to finish that match but couldn't contest her
quarterfinal.
Patty Schnyder fulfilled a major goal of hers to enjoy a strong showing at a
Grand Slam. Her semifinal appearance bettered quarterfinal berths at the 1998
French and US Opens and came with impressive wins over seeds Paola Suarez,
Nathalie Dechy and Lisa Raymond.
Schnyder, who was married in December to Rainer Hoffmann, fell to Clijsters
62 76(2) in the semifinals after serving for the second set.
Lisa Raymond caused the biggest upset of the tournament, ousting No.3 seed
Venus Williams in the third round. Williams was playing her first tournament
since her Wimbledon finals loss to sister Serena last July, missing six
months due to an abdominal injury.
The discovery in Week 1 of the Australian Open was undoubtedly French
teenager Tatiana Golovin. A wildcard entry in a reciprocal arrangement
between Tennis Australia and the French Tennis Federation, Golovin celebrated
her 16th birthday on the middle Sunday by reaching the fourth round.
Defeats of No.14 Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi and No.23 Lina Kransoroutskaya came
without the loss of a set, not bad for a player contesting her second Grand
Slam event and fifth WTA Tour event overall.
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