Henin and the others - 網球

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Henin and the others
by: Kamakshi Tandon, TENNIS.com

She sat out the beginning of the season to deal with the breakup of her
four-year marriage, and fell to a player ranked below 30 in her first
tournament back. After winning her next two events against mid-quality
fields, she then had a strange mental lapse and let a convincing lead slip
away at the Sony Ericsson Open final (where, in truth, she should have lost
in the second round). What's more, the effort took so much out of her fragile
physique that she suffered breathing problems and had to take the next month
off.

This is the player who's the formidable favorite to win the French Open? The
most physically gruelling Slam of them all?

Well … yes, because she -- Justine Henin -- has lost only two matches on
clay in the last two years. Her 41-2 record isn't quite as impressive as the
70+ unbeaten mark Rafael Nadal has posted over a similar time frame, but it
certainly sets her apart from the rest of the field.

Once upon a time, the cast of contenders for the women's title in Paris
looked more or less the same as other Slams. Players like Chris Evert,
Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Martina Hingis
may have been more formidable at certain locations than at others, but were
effective enough to be title threats everywhere. But recent No.1s have shown
more inclination for hard courts and grass, with their best Roalnd Garros
result lagging far behind their results at the other three.

Heading into the clay season this year, a perfect storm of slumps, hangups
and injuries has conspired to leave Henin looking like the lone contender.
The only other name in the conversation is Serena Williams, and clay is her
weakest surface. Consider the state of the rest of the field, and you'll see
why the bar isn't higher.

Potential contenders who do like clay have either been underperforming or
injured -- or both -- and are ripe for an early upset (Amelie Mauresmo,
Martina Hingis, Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva).

Others will be vulnerable because they don't like clay and won't have played
much coming in (Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams). Serena Williams could fall
into this category too, because she's played just three tournaments this year
-- but she's won two of them. She'll have to pull off a similar miracle in
Paris now that she's pulled out of the clay warmup in Berlin -- and even for
Serena, that might be a reach too far.

And the group of young players (Nicole Vaidisova, Jelena Jankovic, Ana
Ivanovic, Anna Chakvetadze) have frequently disappointed when given a chance
to take down a big name on a big stage. The rest are either solid perennials
or late bloomers who could make a run but are unlikely to win the whole
thing.

They've got three weeks to make a late statement. Otherwise it looks like
Henin -- who defaulted so controversially in the Australian Open final last
year -- will be the one winning by default this time.

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