Season comes full circle for Henin - 網球

寫得還不錯 給juju很高的評價 也分析得很透徹
也有很多內容是一般新聞沒有的 ex.教練的話 值得一看！...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/usopen07/news/story?id=3010076
Season comes full circle for Henin
By Bonnie D. Ford Special to ESPN.com Updated: September 9, 2007, 1:54 AM ET

NEW YORK -- If Justine Henin had taken time last week to fill out one of
those stress tests found in pop culture magazines -- the ones that assign
point totals to dramatic events in your life over the last year -- she would
have been off the charts.

Henin began 2007 as No. 1 in the world, with one of the most admired tactical
games in tennis, but all was not well beneath the brim of her businesslike
ballcap.

Her marriage was on the rocks and she hadn't spoken to most of her immediate
family in seven years. Although Henin had five Grand Slam wins under her
belt, her fellow players and much of the public and press perceived her as
frosty and criticized her for withdrawing from big matches when she didn't
feel exactly right.

Here's what Henin did. She let things fly, both on and off the court. This
was her Year of Living Interestingly, the season she got on the plane and
understood there would be turbulence and decided she wouldn't let it unnerve
her.

This was the year she began to do what her longtime coach and mentor Carlos
Rodriguez has been urging her to do for a long time. She dropped some of her
reserve and let people get a glimpse of her passion for the sport as well as
her skill.

The results -- well, the results have been "magical," as Henin said after
winning her second U.S. Open on Saturday night with a 6-1, 6-3 whitewashing
of Russia's No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"At the beginning of the year we really asked ourselves where we were going
-- we talked about a year of transition," she told French-speaking reporters,
referring to the winning combination she has with Rodriguez, who has coached
her for 11 years.

"I've grown up a lot. I've had the sense that this is the first time in my
life that I'm doing things for myself. I realized that life is short and that
it's a precious gift. Now I don't do anything I don't want to do. I do
everything because I want to do it."

Henin, 25, of Belgium, called this championship -- which came after defeating
Serena and Venus Williams back-to-back in the quarterfinal and semifinal
rounds -- her most satisfying Slam. "There aren't many women who could do
that here in New York," she said with quiet conviction. She did it without
dropping a set, as was the case in May when she captured her third straight
French Open title.

She has reached at least the semifinal round of every tournament she has
played since the middle of last season, and she's healthy. Henin actually
knocked wood when she said this might be the first season she gets through
without injury.

Nothing has diverted Henin -- not divorce, not being diagnosed with a sudden
onset of chronic asthma last March, not an emotional reconciliation with her
family a few weeks before the French Open spurred by an older brother's
near-fatal car accident, not the stunning upset that pudgy French wonder
Marion Bartoli handed her in the Wimbledon semifinals, not the fact that
announcer Dick Enberg inadvertently addressed her as "Henin-Hardenne" -- her
now-defunct married name -- during the trophy ceremony.

"No, I don't care about that," she said, flashing the smile that has been a
standard all season. "I heard it, but that was OK."

Rodriguez told reporters he felt Henin had finally come out from behind the
wall she'd constructed to try to hide any frailty from fans or competitors.
"She understands, 'I am a human being and human beings can have failures,'"
he said.

Henin readily admitted the change. "I could feel a big difference this time
in the States when I came here," she said. "People were coming much more
easily to me. I think I look more open. I look [like] myself. I can be a
funny person. You know, people that really know me, I love spending time with
people that I love. I'm a normal person.

" … I think that people really start to really know me a little bit better,
and it's been a big difference in my life the last few months."

Not that she doesn't have small lapses. Serving for the match, Henin was
briefly distracted by a spectator who let out a war whoop between her first
and second serves. She committed a double fault, one of seven she logged for
the night.

Two Grand Slams Titles, Same Season Without Dropping a Set
In the Open era, Justine Henin is only the sixth player to win two Grand Slam
titles in the same season without losing a set.

Year Player Slams
2007 Justine Henin French, U.S.
2002 Serena Williams Wimbledon, U.S.
1997 Martina Hingis Australian, U.S.
1988 Steffi Graf Australian, French
1983 Martina Navratilova Wimbledon, U.S.
1972 Billie Jean King French, U.S.

Henin didn't necessarily play her absolute best tennis against Kuznetsova,
but she didn't have to. The amiable Russian, who still wields a powerful
forehand but is somewhat thicker around the middle than she was when she won
the Open in 2004, played the same kind of uninspired, error-plagued tennis
she got away with in a sloppy semifinal win over Anna Chakvetadze.

Kuznetsova stared straight ahead, obviously gutted, as she waited for her
runner-up trophy, and apologized to the crowd for not bringing her A-game.

Henin, by contrast, sprinted up into the stands to hug Rodriguez, and thanked
him publicly even though he would prefer she didn't.

Asked why he thought their relationship had lasted so long, the animated
Spaniard responded, "It doesn't surprise me. I'm surprised the players can
change [coaches] so often. I can't work like this. I have to know the
person."

Clearly, Henin is grateful to Rodriguez because, as the one person who gave
her some continuity all these years, he knows her well enough to bring down
the hammer.

He has asked her to come forward. To come forward in the technical sense --
lashing angled volleys that are her only chance of consistently beating
bigger, stronger players -- and in the personal sense, where she needed to
work through her issues the way she tries to read a match in progress.

"I said to her, 'Try to have the courage to solve your problems -- only you,
nobody else, not even me,'" Rodriguez said. "What advice can I give her? I'm
a married man with two kids, 20 years older than her. She did this herself. …
She has taught me as much as I've taught her."

Maybe Henin can be an example for other athletes. Personalities, even the
ones on most public display, don't have to be set in stone. Change is
possible, the same way a baseliner can start going to the net.

Henin is still No. 1 and has a good chance to end 2007 there, but she's
actually in a very different place from where she started in January. We've
all known for a long time that she would move mountains to win a match. We
just didn't know she'd try to reach a personal peak and wave to us when she
got to the top.

Bonnie D. Ford is a frequent contributor who is covering the U.S. Open for
ESPN.com.

--