Henin sets sights on her ultimate goal

看板NED-BEL-LUX作者JustinWang (Henin要奪冠！)時間20年前 (2005/06/21 02:09)推噓1(1推 0噓 1→)

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http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=675572005 Henin sets sights on her ultimate goal STUART BATHGATE AT WIMBLEDON JUSTINE Henin-Hardenne does not do distractions. Her main competitors can launch their own perfume or clothing range if they wish. She will just stick to playing tennis. She is, if you like, the Paul Scholes of the women's tour. Someone who is world-class at what they do but somehow gets by without the chat-show appearances or multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals which peers receive. A players' player. Her rivals will admit, a touch grudgingly, that they respect her. In reality, there are times when they fear her, and in particular the way in which she seizes hold of matches with a rodent-like tenacity. That ability to take a grip on contests has already helped her to win the Australian, French and US Opens, as well as an Olympic gold medal. Had her career not been severely hampered by a virus over the past couple of years, she would no doubt have won a lot more. Wimbledon was among the tournaments she had to sit out last year, and now, fitness restored, she is fiercely intent on making up for lost time. Certainly her coach, Carlos Rodriguez, knows that Wimbledon is her main goal. "Now it is the one she wants above all others," he said. "Because of being brought up in the French-speaking part of Belgium and going to Roland Garros as a little girl, that tournament will always be the very special one for Justine, but she has now won that twice. "She wasn't really ready when she lost the 2001 Wimbledon final to Venus [Williams], but it's different now. The way she must play in the coming two weeks is something we have been discussing for a long time." There will be tactical niceties and variations according to which opponent she is facing, but essentially, the way she must play is the way she always plays. The way she played when defeating Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the French Open last month. Even more so, the way she played two rounds later when conceding only two games against Mary Pierce in the most one-sided Grand Slam final for 17 years. Five foot six and a slip of a thing, Henin-Hardenne is conceding a lot to her leading rivals every time she steps on court. Yet, while she does not have the brute force of Sharapova or Serena Williams, she is more than capable of producing powerful strokes, notably her backhand. Above all, though, it is her mental fortitude that allows the Belgian to compete on level terms with, and sometimes prevail against, those more physically blessed. Take that last-eight match in the French Open. "I'm not going to say she was the better player, but she was mentally stronger than me," Sharapova conceded last week. "Looking back at the tape of the match, I would say I was totally out of it. "I didn't fight at all. Why? How can I say a month after? I thought I did at the time, but when you look at my face in the first set when it's only three-all and then you look at her, that's the whole thing right there." The Russian's explanation is somewhat ungracious. Did she simply opt, consciously or otherwise, not to fight? If so, it must have been for the first time since her earliest years in tennis. A far more likely explanation is that, seeing how up for the game Henin-Hardenne was, Sharapova was awestruck by the toughness of the task which was facing her. This self-deluding ploy - she didn't really win the match, it was me who lost it - is useful for psyching oneself up for the next meeting with that particular opponent. Serena Williams, for example, has said the same thing about last year's final here, when Sharapova fought her way back into the match. But it is also a tacit admission that the other woman was able to hold herself together better. And, in the case of Henin-Hardenne's overall game, it suggests that, when the going gets tough and she and her opponent are both injury-free, the psychological upper hand will be with the Belgian. One thing is certain this year, thanks to the way the draw has worked out. There will be no repeat of last year's final or of this year's at Roland Garros; or, indeed, of the Williams versus Williams finals of 2002 and 2003. All five women are in the same half of the draw. Venus Williams, having slipped down the rankings, is only the No 14 seed, and thus is scheduled to meet her younger sister in the fourth round. Pierce, the No 12, will come up against Henin-Hardenne at the same stage - if her fragile psyche holds together that long. And Sharapova, the No 2, will play whoever emerges from that battle royal provided she makes her way through the less choppy waters of the bottom quarter of the draw. The probability that she will face fewer difficult matches in the first week will be an advantage to the Russian, but she claimed yesterday that retaining her title would prove substantially more difficult than winning it. "Obviously it's going to be a lot harder - I've heard that many times," she said, before apparently contradicting herself by talking of how much she had learned over the previous 12 months. "Last year I was 17 years old, and who expected me to win? This year I'm 18, I've had so much more experience behind my back, and I love the surface. Obviously, there are going to be more expectations, but I'm just going to go out and enjoy myself. "Every time I step on to grass I feel confident, because it really suits my game. You never know what can happen on a certain day, but I feel like I have a bigger advantage against a lot of my opponents." The main advantage Sharapova has over Henin-Hardenne is her greater comfort on grass, although the Belgian has improved considerably in that respect over the past 18 months. Besides, a tricky opening encounter with Eleni Daniilidou of Greece should provide the No 7 seed with a rapid refamiliarisation with the surface. The draw could yet play into the hands of Lindsay Davenport, the top seed and 1999 champion who is at the top of the draw, safely removed from her main competitors. If those battles involving Serena, Sharapova and Henin-Hardenne prove too attritional, the veteran American could benefit from having most left in her tank by the time the final comes around. But it seems unlikely, particularly in the case of Henin-Hardenne. Her time out last year was a valuable break physically, and allowed her to reassess what she wanted out of tennis. She doesn't want to go on Jonathan Ross and try to comprehend the doubles entendres. She doesn't want to tell us that our armpits will smell more socially acceptable if only we use the same deodorant as her. She just wants to win seven matches, pick up that trophy, and then go home with a job well done. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 218.160.64.244