Tomorrow is Another Day for Justine
In all the Grand Slams played over the last twelve months, indeed in so many
tournaments on the women's tour, it was a rarity that Justine Henin-Hardenne
would suffer a loss. The world number one usually had a mind like a steel
trap and her fitness would carry her over the line, time and again.
One of those rare moments haunted her in the second round of Roland Garros
when she became a shock casualty. The loss was even rarer for the holder of
the singles crown. Only once before since the French Championships began back
in 1925 has a women's defending champion lost in the second round. It's never
happened in the first round, but back in 1990 titleholder Arantxa Sanchez
Vicario became the first to lose in the second round. Now Henin-Hardenne has
that unfortunate statistic beside her name.
The Belgian, who had been off the tour for six weeks because of a virus was
playing her first event and fell victim to 86th ranked Italian Tathiana Garbin,
losing 75 64 in one hour 57 minutes.
Maybe her return was too soon but she explained that she doesn't regret the
decision to play. She did it for herself and no one else. She didn't feel
that she owed it to anyone or anything to play, she just wanted to play.
This was the scene of her emotional victory last year when she dedicated it
to her late mother. It was the tournament she dreamed of winning as a child
and it remains one of her favourites.
"I was feeling good but on the court it's for sure a different situation,"
said Henin-Hardenne, who was defending a Grand Slam title for the first time.
"It is a tough situation, but I think that in the past I came through many
times and I'm sure I'll do it one more time.
"I don't want to find any excuse. It's hard to come back after the problem I
got. I was really nervous. I wasn't moving well and I was late all the time.
I couldn't play my game. So it's a little frustrating, but it's a choice that
I made and I have to assume that now. It's okay, life continues. It's a bad
day, tomorrow is going to be better."
While the Belgian's lack of match play leading into the French was clearly
evident, nothing should be taken away form Garbin who scored the best win of
her career, and on such a stage. Henin-Hardenne was quick to recognise that
the Italian had played a solid match and "it was her great day".
Garbin almost came across as being in a state of shell-shock. She couldn't
remember what happened on the last point, which was a forehand passing shot
winner down the line.
"I'm so confused. I still cannot believe the way I played," said Garbin. "You
play against the number one in the world, so you wake up and you enjoy the
life, go on court and play your tennis. I don't believe yet that I beat her.
So I'm just unbelievable happy for my tennis career."
When Henin-Hardenne left the court, Andy Roddick and Olivier Mutis were next
on and when Roddick won the first set, to most, things had settled down. Even
when Mutis won the second, alarm bells were not even close to being tolled.
How wrong everyone was because suddenly the match was gripped in a fifth set.
Roddick was not happy, in fact at times he seemed to have verbal you know
what because he was talking non-stop. It's something his coach Brad Gilbert
is famous for, that persistent chatter. Mutis had made major inroads and this
was not looking good for the second seed.
Mutis created a 5-0 lead in the final set. Roddick staged a bit of a rally
but it lasted just two games and on match point the Frenchman produced his
tenth ace to seal the victory 36 63 67 63 62 in three hours eleven minutes.
For the third consecutive year Roddick has failed to get past the second
round ... well he did do one round better than in 2002 and 2003.
"I started off playing pretty well in the beginning (but) time after time I
kept letting him back into it," said Roddick. "Once I let him back in he was
a different player the latter part of the match than he was at the beginning.
That's my fault. Kudos to him for stepping up his game after that."
Roddick was left to lick his wounds and cast his mind to "what ifs". He said
this loss will bother him more than the previous ones at Roland Garros.
"This year I expected a little bit more of myself," said Roddick. "I'm a
different player. But I'm going to chose to look forward instead of look back.
There's nothing I can do from this point about Roland Garros this year."
French eyes were certainly more than happy to see Amelie Mauresmo recover
from a second set loss to beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 60 46 61. Carlos Moya
swept past his countryman Fernando Vicente and handed out a tennis lesson,
winning 61 62 61. And Tim Henman was equally as impressive in beating
Lars Burgsmuller 60 63 63. That was a major turnaround from his first round
match when Henman trailed two sets to love.
Men's third seed Guillermo Coria, for many the hot favourite, won in straight
sets but the match was closer than the 75 61 63 scored indicated. Chilean
Nicolas Massu and Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela were also among the winners.
While Garbin showed positive of the Italian red, white and green flag, things
were not good for other Italian players. The 18th seeded Russian Maria
Sharapova wasted no time in her match as she thrashed Italian
Rita Grande 62 60, while the 15th seeded Italian Silvia Farina Elia was sent
packing by Meghann Shaughnessy 63 36 97.
Russians continue to dominate the women's draw. Besides Sharapova, eighth seed
Nadia Petrova, ninth seed Elena Dementieva and 10th seed Vera Zvonareva all survived into the third round. They beat Yuliana Fedak, Nicole Pratt and Magui Serna respectively.
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---禪心已作沾泥絮，莫向春風舞鷓鴣---
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