Henin Proves She's No. 1 - 網球

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Henin Proves She's No. 1
Wednesday, 4 July, 2007

Justine Henin won the heavyweight championship of SW19, finally defeating
Serena Williams with a knock-out blow to reach the semi-finals 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
In the end it was Williams, the physically more imposing of the pair, who was
punching above her weight, unable to counter the metronomic consistency of
Belgium's very own pocket rocket.

There is, as they say in London, "previous" between these two. Back in 2003,
they faced each other in the semi-finals of the French Open. Henin, a French
speaker, was obviously the crowd's darling while Williams had antagonised the
Parisians by calling the lines herself as the match warmed up in the third
set. And then all hell broke loose.

Henin held her hand up to indicate she was not ready just as Williams was
about to serve. The American continued with her service action, walloped the
ball into the net and then asked the umpire to play a let. He had not seen
Henin's signal and maintained that the first serve stood, it was a fault and
Williams must play on.

Williams was furious, the crowd jeered and whistled and Henin stood quietly
by, waited for the fuss to die down and then went on to win. Afterwards
Williams was in tears and accused the victor of "lying and fabricating" her
way to the win.

That, though, was a long time ago and, since then, the two women have met on
many occasions and each time have tried to distance themselves from the
memory. They have, they say, a great deal of respect for each other. They
are, they say, completely over the little altercation in Paris. There is,
they say, no bad blood between them. You could have fooled us.

On the very first point of this encounter, Williams hit the ball straight at
the Belgian. There was much flapping of rackets, waving of hands and the
other usual signals to indicate copious apologies but, even so, the point had
been made. Henin's card had been marked. You don't mess with Serena – not
here, not now.

It comes as no surprise to hear that the youngest of the Williams clan is a
part-time actress. Drama, it seems, runs in the blood. Arriving on court in
her three-quarter length warm-up pants, she had the left leg rolled up to the
knee to show off the massive bandage on her calf, a legacy of the muscle
spasm that felled her in the previous round. Just to add a little more
medical excitement, she also had her left hand heavily strapped. Her father
Richard said she had hurt it during her previous game and was now having
problems hitting her backhand.

He stressed that his girl was not at her physical peak. Unfortunately, he
forgot to mention this to his daughter.

It matters not to Williams whether she is ranked number one in the world or
No. 101, whether she is the reigning champion or whether she is injured, out
of sorts and playing badly – she believes that she is the best player on the
tour.

In her mind, she is always the number one and it is just the rankings
computer that has got it wrong. Such belief won her the Australian Open title
in January and has dug her out of many a hole in the past.

As she started to make inroads into Henin's defences in the second set, the
swagger returned to Williams' gait. There were moments, though, when she
would get it wrong, when she would be caught out by one of Henin's
inch-perfect passing shots.

Then Henin struck. Where Hantuchova failed to make the injured Williams run
in the previous round, Henin went for the jugular. Actually, she went for the
gammy leg, and as the match wore on, she pushed the American around, she
brought her in and then she sent her scuttling back.

Williams growled, she roared and she fought but she could not win. Whereas
Williams may believe that she is the world number one player, Justine Henin
knows that the title really belongs to her. And that makes all the difference
in the world.

Written by Alix Ramsay

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