French Open - Wilander on women's final - 網球

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08062007/58/french-open-wilander-women-s-final.html
French Open - Wilander on women's final
Eurosport - Sat, 09 Jun 00:19:00 2007

French Open - Three times French Open champion and Eurosport expert Mats
Wilander runs the rule of the women's final at Roland Garros, and believes
that the longer the match goes on, the great the chance that Justin Henin can
pick up her fourth title.

Justine Henin is of course the favourite going into the women's final with
Ana Ivanovic, this is the tournament she is supposed to win, she is going for
three in a row, and she can create a bit of history.

I think the longer the match goes on, the greater the chance that Justine
will go on and win it.

Ivanovic has to come out and really play positive tennis, hitting winners is
what her game is all about, but she also has to be careful not to go for too
much too early.

I think Justine just needs to come out and be a little tight. This shouldn't
be problem for her as it is a Grand Slam final, and everyone is a little
tight in a big final.

She has to be careful in the opening four or five minutes because Ivanovic
hits the ball with a lot of pace and serves better that some of the other
ladies that Justine has faced so far.

I feel that two key shots in the match could well be Ivanovic's forehand and
Henin's backhand.

Ivanovic can generate so much power on her forehand but she also has a great
backhand which she feels allows her to go for big shots with that forehand
because her backhand is good enough to stay with anybody.

However, Justine's backhand is one of the better looking shots in tennis in
either the men's or the women's game.

She can also slice her backhand which gives her an advantage over Ivanovic,
because Ana has a two handed backhand which makes it very hard for her to
learn the slice.

Henin, on the other hand, has a beautiful slice; she can hit drop shots off
it, and she is also very comfortable at the net because it is basically the
same stroke - she is still just using the one hand.

It should be a really interesting match, especially in the opening hour, and
I just hope that Ivanovic stays in there and keeps fighting if she ever finds
herself in a position where it looks like she might lose the match.

--