Re: ACE 的 Henin 訪問

看板NED-BEL-LUX作者Architect (A talented idiot)時間22年前 (2003/11/04 00:14)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

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(續前.....) Monica Seles remained an inspiration. Her courageous comeback after being stabbed on court less than a year after that final coincided with the period when Justine had to face her mother's death. "What Monica did is unbelievable," Justine told ACE. "It's not easy to come back the way she did after she was stabbed. The first match I palyed against her in Las Vegas in 2000 was diffi- -cult for me." "To me, she is a legend, someone who has given so much to the game." Justine's mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. She had an operation and seemed to recover. But towards the end of the year she started to deteriorate rapidly. "She'd fall over, she'd forget things. It was difficult to be around her," Justine remembers. "We knew she was fighting the disease, but she refused to show how she was suffering, especially to us kids. She was unbelievably brave." "How can someone be so brave when they know they're going to die? For me, seeing her get worse and worse was just awful. She had loads of energy and she always kept herself busy, but at the end it became harder and harder for me to deal with." Two months before her death, Francoise Henin travelled from Belgium to Tarbes in the south of France to see Justine reach the semi-finals of the world-class 14-and-under tournament, Les Petits As. "It was the greatest show of love that my mother could have given me," says Justine. Francoise died on March 26, 1995. Justine still thinks about her mother every day. And she draws strength from her memory, particularly on the tennis court. The first thoughts to cross her mind after she beat Clijsters to win the French Open were of her mother. No one should underestimate the impact Francoise had in forming Justine's character. "I don't know if I've changed since her death," Justine writes. "But what hasn't changed is the love that I have for her. She is still living inside me. Sometimes I cry when I think about her. She'll be in my life untill the very end." "I often hear people saying 'Poor little Justine...she's had a really rough time of it.' Yes, that's true, but it has forget my character and I can't change anything. It's toughened me up, but it's also weakened me. I am more sensitive because I've realised how unfair life is. I hope my mother is proud of me for what I've become. I know for sure that she's proud of my results and proud to see me when I'm battling it out on court." The loss of her mother inevitably forced the teenage Justine to become more independent. She accepted an invitation to join the Belgian tennis federation's training squad in Mons. Competing on the junior circuit meant lots of foreign travel, something which Justine found difficult. She was painfully shy, spoke little English and didn't make friends easily. On the tour she very much kept herself to herself. She hated travelling abroad. Then she started working with the Argentinian coach Carlos Rodriguez, who is still with her today. With Carlos there, Justine felt more comfortable compe- -ting and travelling all over the world. He became a good friend and provided her with the support she needed. Her game blossomed and in 1997 she won her first major title - the French Open juniors. When she was 16 Justine met her future husband, Pierre-Yves Hardenne. He was coaching kids at Justine's tennis club. "Thanks to him, I became much more con- -fident," she says. "It was the first time I really fell in love. I'd never experienced the feeling before and it helped me gain the confidence I needed to make the most of my opportunities. Not just the tennis opportunities, but opportunities in life, too. Also, because relationships with my family had be- -come more and more strained, I lacked the affection I so needed. Pierre-Yves gave me that affection." In 1999 Justine won her first WTA title, at Antwerp. At the French Open that year she had a matchpoint against the then World No.1 Lindsay Davenport. But some poor results followed. Justine was forced to take stock of her career and came to a major turning point in her life. ""I was approaching my 18th birthday," she says. "I felt it was time I made sense of my life; time I found out what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. I needed to reaffirm myself on a personal level and say what I liked and didn't like. Before, I hadn't been free enough and I didn't always say what I was thinking. It was crucial that I started living in a different way." "When I started competing again I felt I was playing for me and for me only. I no longer feared losing. Before, I hadn't wanted to disappoint the people around me. In Jult 2000, when I made my first Grand Slam fourth round appea- -rance [at the US Open], I opened the door to the champion I would become. I gave myself the chance to succeed." On her return from New York Justine made the split with her family and moved into a flat with Pierre-Yves, above his family's butcher's shop in Marloie. "My career really took off in an amazing way," Justine says. Her fans know the rest of the saga: semi-finalist at the French Open and runner-up at Wimbledon in 2001. Semi-finalist at this year's Australian Open and Wimbledon. Champion at this year's French Open. Eleven other WTA singles titles. And now a dramatic win in New York to become the 2003 US Open champion. All of it, she says, would have been impossible without the support of Pierre- -Yves. "My marriage was a way for me to finally have a proper home, somewhere I could build a family," Justine says. "Having a home is very positive for my stability.Yhe support I get from Pierre-Yves is even greater now he's my husband. Since I've become a married women I feel far more confident. I'm now buliding something strong. I'm at a turning point in my life and in my career. Thanks to my marriage I'll now be able to push my game into top gear. Above all , it's been our love which has guided us so far...and it's our love which will guide us in the future." "With the Roland Garros title under my belt, I'm now a different Justine Henin- -Hardenne," she admits. "I feel different. I have something extra in my life. No one can take my trophy away from me or my first Grand Slam. Back in 1992, when I promised my mother that one day I would be on Roland Garros's Court Cen- -tral, she must have thought I was just being naive - that it was just a kid's crazy dream. Now I know that even the craziest dreams can come true." 全 . 文 . 完 . -- /SG\ / / /Sg/ /Sg/ / G SgS S S S GS S s /GSGSG/ /S\ /SGSGSG/ /SGSGSG/ / s G S S / S S S SG S G sgs/ G G G / \SG/ S/ Sgs/ S S S/ IS THE BEST !!! -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 218.166.42.125 ※ 編輯: Architect 來自: 218.166.42.125 (11/04 01:44)