Hard case Henin finds the touch of a poet - 網球

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Hard case Henin finds the touch of a poet
Justin Henin combined elegance with precision as she made rapid progress.
Richard WilliamsJune 30, 2007 12:27 AM

There were no red knickers or dying swans on Court Two yesterday. Ostentation
is out of place in the third-ranked of Wimbledon's arenas, a cockpit built
for close combat of the type that has humbled many great champions but which
seemed to suit the world No1 Justine Henin as she gave short shrift to the
challenge of Elena Vesnina, a 20-year-old from Russia, winning 6-1, 6-3 .

In the first round of the French Open a month ago Vesnina took seven games
off Henin. There was to be no improvement yesterday, however, as Henin lost
only four games to complete an easy week that also included victories over
Jorgelino Cravero of Argentina (6-3, 6-0) and Vera Dushevina of Russia (6-0,
6-4). In her trio of first-week matches she compiled a total of two hours and
eight minutes on court, conceding a mere 11 games, and came off after the
defeat of Vesnina looking forward to a long weekend to be spent listening to
Johnny Hallyday - a fellow Belgian, at least by paternity - and watching her
DVDs of Rome, the blood-bolter'd series devoted to various forms of rape and
pillage.

Words like "bluecollar" and "hardscrabble" seem to suit the No1 seed, who
comes from the steel town of Liege. Until, that is, she starts to play, when
she is transformed into a creature seemingly born in a royal palace and
raised on a diet of champagne and truffles.

If Henin looked like Maria Sharapova, no other female tennis player would get
a look-in when it came to endorsements. Yet how wonderfully nature sometimes
balances its gifts, endowing a statuesque supermodel-type with the most basic
forms of weaponry while bestowing upon a plain-faced little woman the
instincts and touch of a poet. Add the perennially fascinating and
unpredictable Williams sisters to the mix and you get a women's bill that
currently outshines the men's.

Henin is hoping to complete the set of grand-slam trophies by adding her
first Wimbledon title to her four victories at Roland Garros and her single
successes in Australia and the United States. After her recent wins in Paris
and at Eastbourne, where she defeated Ana Ivanovic and Amelie Mauresmo in the
finals, she arrived in London feeling tired and was grateful for the
comparatively easy passage to Monday's fourth round, where she will meet
Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who is appearing in the tournament for the
12th time but has never before made it through to the second week.

Vesnina, who reached the second round on her Wimbledon debut last year, was
born in Ukraine but now lives in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia's
candidate for the 2014 Winter Olympics, where the local tennis academy also
produced Sharapova and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Ranked world No67, she has
something of Sharapova's straight-backed carriage and completes her
follow-through with a nice flourish but will need time to complete the
transition from clay and hardcourts to the alien grass.

She dropped serve in the first game yesterday, her guard pierced by the first
of the laser-guided forehand passes which are the most recent addition to
Henin's armoury, but came back and fought well until the fifth game of the
set, when optimism seemed to drain away as her service again fell victim to
Henin's persistent aggression. The Russian's golden ponytail had started to
droop long before the top seed wrapped up the set with another break.

There were signs of a revival from Vesnina early in the second set, a raking
backhand down the line and an impressive serve-and-volley exercise helping
her to hold serve. Under gathering clouds, however, she started to wilt again
and was soon bowing her head in acknowledgement as another sizzling Belgian
forehand thunked into the backcloth.

The weather intervened with Henin leading 3-2 in the second set, having
uncharacteristically blown two break points in the fourth game. She was, she
said later, trying to get it finished before the rain came, but pressed too
hard. About an hour later, with the sun now burning down out of an azure sky,
they returned to complete the formalities.

Having lost to Mauresmo in last year's final and defeated her a week ago,
Henin was invited to give her opinion on the form of the defending champion,
who had an appendectomy in March. "She's getting better," she said. "She had
a pretty tough time with her surgery and everything. I'm sure it's not easy
to come back from that. She's been in a bit of trouble, but that happens to a
lot of players. It looks like on grass she's getting better now. She loves
this tournament so much. Who knows what can happen? She's one of the players
who could go to the end."

Henin, too, appreciates Wimbledon, although it will never replace Roland
Garros in her affections. "I like to be here," she concluded. "I think it's a
great atmosphere. We can feel something different. But Paris remains the
place where my heart is beating pretty hard."


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