Justine wins the Belgian battle - 網球

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Justine wins the Belgian battle
By Matthew Cronin
Thursday, June 8, 2006

In another sterling performance in her favorite stadium, defending champion
Justine Henin-Hardenne whipped Kim Clijsters 6-3 6-2 to move into her third
Roland Garros final.

Employing a super-aggressive and ultra-confident style, Henin attacked
Clijsters from the opening ball, crushing her forehand, serving big and jumping
on her foe's second serve.

A two-time finalist here, Clijsters attempted to match her fellow Belgian blow
for blow but after holding to 3-3 in the first set, she fell apart at the seams.

"I felt like she started to take a lot more risks on her return games and she
started to really put me under pressure from the first serve already. She tried
to go for her shots. I think from then on, she raised her level a bit, and from
then on she was too good," said Clijsters.

While Henin moved beautifully and played some standout defensive points, it was
her signal to Clijsters that she was more than willing to trade massive
groundstrokes with her rather than just try to trip her up with her variety,
that did her foe in.

Clijsters was never able to properly respond to Henin's steely attitude and had
trouble hanging with her in rallies that lasted beyond six balls.

"She's by far the best clay court player," Clijsters said. "She's really
consistent. The difference between her and, I think any other player, is that
she just moves so well. It's not that she hits the ball harder than any of us,
it's just that she moves so well. You can hit two, three winners and you think
now you have a winner, but against her they just keep coming back."

Henin broke Clijsters to 5-3 when she forced her into a forehand error and then
won the first set with two aces, the first one a second serve ace.

Clijsters tried to turn things around early in the second set, but Henin broke
her to 2-1 on her fifth break point when Clijsters double faulted.

Clijsters, who turned 23 on Thursday, then seem to forget that it was supposed
to be her day of celebration, when she whiffed on an overhead in the sixth game
, allowing Henin to hold to 4-2.

"I felt like a lot of the times, the rallies, I was dominating the points, but
I just couldn't finish them off," Clijsters said. "I knew that was going to
happen because I know she's a player who defends incredibly well out there on
clay. On a hard court, you can hit a shot and most, like 99 per cent it's a
winner. Here on clay, they keep coming back. I don't think I was consistent
enough to keep going for those lines. I think that's where I messed up a few
times, on those important points."

Henin then broke Clijsters again to 5-2 when Clijsters missed an easy backhand
crosscourt, and the smaller yet more focused Belgian won the match with a
service winner.

"It was solid tennis, consistent," Henin said. "I had breakpoints against me
and I served very well on these points and I've was very aggressive on these
points. Then I played very well on the important points when I broke Kim to go
to 5-3 in the first set. In the second set it was another story.

"I wasn't that aggressive at the beginning, but she started to do some mistakes
and I felt that I had to let her play a little bit because she started to do a
lot of mistakes. I was smart enough to say, 'Okay, let's put the ball in the
court, in a good way.'"

Henin will face 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. The two
clashed here last year, with Kuznetsova letting go of two match points in the
quarters. Henin also beat her last month in Berlin.

"I know that she's gonna have a lot of motivation," Henin said. "She is a great
player. She has the experience. So it's going to be a tough one. I know I will
have to be at my best level if I want to win on Saturday. We always had tough
matches, especially on clay.

"She's very powerful. I think that helps her on clay court and especially with
her forehand. She proved again today that she's a real fighter. For sure she
will want to win and take a bit of revenge of what happened last year here."


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看來小克昨天應該傻眼很多次...
還有小克你人真好

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