Henin-Hardenne Dominates Pierce To Win Second French Open

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June 4, 2005 Henin-Hardenne Dominates Pierce To Win Second French Open PARIS - Playing near-flawless tennis from start to finish, 23-year-old Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne claimed her second Roland Garros title Saturday with a 61 61 demolition of home crowd favorite and 2000 champion Mary Pierce. Watched by Prince Philippe of Belgium, along with hundreds of vocal supporters who drove across the border to cheer her on, the former world No.1 capped a perfect clay court season and an amazing comeback from illness and injury. In just 61 minutes, she secured her fourth career Grand Slam title and 24th consecutive win of the year. What turned out to be a one-sided final started quite promisingly, with Pierce confidently holding serve to open the match, much to the delight of the Parisian crowd. But as the skies turned greyer, Pierce's groundstrokes quickly deserted her as Henin-Hardenne took control of the match with baseline aggression accompanied by bold net charges. "I think it wasn't an easy situation for her," said Henin-Hardenne of Pierce. "She had to deal with a lot of pressure. Being here in the final in France, I think it's not easy for her. And probably she didn't play her best tennis and she didn't play the best match of two weeks. "But I think I've pushed her a lot. Especially at the beginning of the match, I put on her a lot of pressure, and then she started to do a lot of unforced errors. But I played very well, very aggressive at the beginning. I served very good during the whole match." The first set was claimed after just 24 minutes when Pierce served her second double fault of the game. It certainly wasn't the same Pierce on Saturday that knocked out world No.1 Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals and Elena Likhovtseva in the semis. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman, seeded No.21, was aiming to become the oldest Roland Garros champion since a 31-year-old Chris Evert reigned in 1986. With the occasional glorious return she had glimmers of hope in a couple of Henin-Hardenne's service games, but the No.10-seeded Belgian wriggled her way out of those minor troubles with impeccable serving, something that had let her down at various stages of her previous six matches. A smash dumped into the net early in the second set seemed to sum up Pierce's situation. "I wasn't nervous, which wasn't good I think," said a dejected Pierce, who broke down in tears during the trophy presentation. "I felt like I made a lot of mistakes today. Just wasn't my day; just didn't really feel like it was working my way. Justine played really good, very solid match from her side. I was just trying to get into it. It just wasn't happening for me today." Umbrellas went up as the rain came down heavier in the first game of the second set, but play continued. Henin-Hardenne continued her string of consecutive games, reeling off nine in a row before Pierce held for 3-1. Despite this, her error count rose, 29 for the match to 15 for Henin-Hardenne. Racing through the second set in a similar fashion to the first, Henin-Hardenne quickly found herself serving for the match at 5-1. Despite serving a double fault on her first match point, she wasn't to be denied on the second as Pierce pushed a backhand into the net. It was the most one-sided final since Steffi Graf whitewashed Natasha Zvereva 60 60 in the 1988 final. It's been a phenomenal comeback by Henin-Hardenne, who had three stints on the sidelines in 2004 due to an energy-sapping virus. Then on the eve of the 2005 season she suffered a right knee injury in training which delayed her return until March. Henin-Hardenne now boasts a 27-1 record for 2005, her only loss to date coming in her return event at Miami, falling in the quarterfinals to Maria Sharapova. "I think I enjoy probably more my game than before my illness, so that's the biggest key," said Henin-Hardenne on her love of the game since her comeback. "I enjoy every moment I'm on the court. Every ball I hit, it's with my heart. I really enjoy it. "It's a great achievement. It's been a very difficult time last year and a lot of questions, and I have a little bit of an answer. So that's very good." Taking a 17-match win streak into the tournament following clay court victories at Charleston, Warsaw and Berlin, Henin-Hardenne started somewhat slowly in Paris. She was taken to three sets in three of her first four rounds, against Conchita Martinez (first round), Anabel Medina Garrigues (third round) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (fourth round), winning that match 76(6) 46 75 in three hours, 15 minutes, having trailed 5-3 and saved two match points in the third set. She also saved a set point in the first set. In winning the title, Henin-Hardenne became the second woman in the Open Era (fourth all-time) to win the Roland Garros women's singles title after saving match point en route to victory. Coincidentally, the first Open Era champion to achieve this feat was last year's winner Myskina, who also saved her match point against Kuznetsova in the fourth round. Henin-Hardenne is projected to rise from No.12 to No.7 on Monday's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Rankings, her first time in the Top 10 since January, having been No.43 on April 11 due to her inactivity. "I was telling my coach and my husband before coming here, if I would have only one Grand Slam to win, that would be this one," added Henin-Hardenne. "So I did it today, and I'm really, really proud of it." While Henin-Hardenne rewrote a few new records this fortnight, one was actually taken away from her. Her second round loss to Tathiana Garbin last year was the joint-earliest loss of the Roland Garros women's champion in the Open Era alongside Arantxa Sanchez in 1990. Anastasia Myskina now holds that dubious honor. The Russian, who revealed on the eve of the tournament her mother is seriously ill, lost in the first round in three sets to Spaniard Maria Sanchez Lorenzo. Despite her disappointing loss on Saturday, it was a wonderful return to form for Pierce, who was appearing in her fifth Grand Slam final (same for Henin- Hardenne), but the first since her victory in Paris five years earlier. Her quarterfinal win over Davenport was her third over a reigning world No.1 at Roland Garros (fifth overall), and she is projected to rise to No.13 on Monday's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings, her highest since April 2001. A variety of injuries (including back and abdominal) saw her ranking bottom out at No.295 in April 2002. "It's very disappointing for me because I've had just such great matches over the last two weeks, and I really felt like my game was improving with every match," said Pierce. "And then, you know, to play today's match and not play so well, it's just a difficult feeling. "I'm happy with my tournament, of course; fantastic tournament. I've had some great wins, beat the No.1 in the world, made the finals here in my favorite tournament. So there's so many great things and so many positive things for me to look back on. I know that I'm on the right path; I'm improving every day." The latter stages of the tournament were dominated by experienced Tour players. Along with two former champions contesting the final, Petrova made her second semi appearance here in three years and Elena Likhovtseva, at age 29, made her debut in the final four of a major, ousting 2004 runner-up Elena Dementieva in the fourth round. However, much of the headlines for the first week-and-a-half were taken by the young brigade. Maria Sharapova, who turned 18 in April, was aiming to become the fourth-youngest No.1 in the history of computer rankings. In order to replace current No.1 Davenport in the top spot, she needed to better last year's quarterfinal finish and rely on the American losing early. Neither eventuated as she again fell in the quarterfinals (to Henin-Hardenne), the same round as Davenport, who won four consecutive three-setters to reach her first quarterfinal here in six years. In the second round, she was two points from elimination against China's Peng Shuai before winning, and in the fourth round she ended a six-match losing streak to Kim Clijsters, having trailed the Belgian 61 31. More teenagers stole the limelight in Week 1, as 17-year-old Serbian Ana Ivanovic stunned world No.3 and French hopeful Amelie Mauresmo in the third round. In the same round, 15-year-old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva upset former No.1 and 2002 runner-up Venus Williams in three sets. Both women went on to reach their first Grand Slam quarterfinals. With injury forcing former champions Jennifer Capriati (shoulder) and Serena Williams (ankle) out of the tournament, and the emergence of new stars on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, 2005 Roland Garros featured somewhat of a changing of the guard in women's tennis, with more certain to follow. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.230.20.190