a tribute to justine henin (:

Justine Henin!

On May 14, the world defending women champion who started off as the 5th ranked player in 2003 and ended the year at world no. 1, has announced the end of her tennis career at the press conference held at her tennis academy, she opened on 30 Nov.

Its a sad news to hear from her (cos I'm a fan of her!)

I can no longer watch how significant her games, her strokes &her powerful one-handed backhand are :( it was really admirable. So dismal that she's leaving :(

“For the last few months I’ve been looking ahead and thinking about who I want to become,” she said. “When I won Madrid Masters final [beating Maria Sharapova 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in a duel lasting over three hours], which for me was the high point of my career, I felt scared about starting training again the day after I came back from my holidays. I wanted to train but I just felt like something had gone inside me. I found it harder and harder to keep packing my bags and the training was getting more and more difficult.”

After suffering from 4 defeats this year, including the lost to Sharapova at Aust Open (6-4 6-0) and Serena Williams in Miami (6-2 6-0), had undermined her movtivation to continue the career. At Berlin, she lost to Dinara Safina in the thrid round (5–7, 6–3, 6–1), which turned out to be the final career match.

“I’ve thought about this long and hard,” she continued, “both on my own and with my people. Carrying on like this for another six months or a year could have made me feel bitter about things. This way, I’m leaving as world number one and that’s important to me.”

In total, she had racked up 41 titles in all (including 7 Grand Slams, 2 Masters titles and an Olympic gold medal at Athens), and had sustained at the top rank for 117 weeks to be exact.

However, the frenetic pace took its toll within these few years.

“I’ve achieved everything I ever dreamed of,” said Henin. “Winning Wimbledon [the only Grand Slam to evade her grasp] wouldn’t make me any happier than I am today.”

And so with about 10 days away from her favourite tournament, the French Open, she decided to hang up her racket for good and concentrate on charity and her tennis academy.

All the best for your future endevours, Justine!