Justine Henin returns to the WTA Tour next week at a tournament which has helped project her to a status of one of tennis’ greats.
Victory in the 2007 Dubai Open launched her emotional comeback, which saw her win 63 of 67 matches
DUBAI: Justine Henin returns to the WTA Tour next week at a tournament which has helped project her to a status of one of tennis’ greats. The Dubai Open title has been won three successive times by the world number one from Belgium, who remembers the $ 1.5-million tournament as the one which launched her emotional comeback last year from a divorce from Pierre-Yves Hardenne.
“Until now I was just a woman and not a tennis player,” was Henin’s memorable remark before going on to win her first 2007 title at the friendly and opulent Gulf event. It triggered an extraordinary sequence of nine more titles during 2007, including two Grand Slams, and 63 wins out of 67 matches, achievements which helped her this month to become the first tennis player to win the Laureus world sportswoman of the year award.
They also helped Henin become the first woman tennis player to win more than five-million dollars’ prize money in a single year, though it is also overcoming personal obstacles which have enabled her to acquire a new and elevated status within her sport. These have included a mother who died young, a sister who died prematurely, a father who became estranged, a tenacious virus, repeated injuries, innuendos about drug-taking, spats with the Belgian press, and an emotionally distracting family rapprochement, as well as the divorce.
The courage and imagination she has discovered within herself to deal with all this has elicited the public’s sympathy. “Everyone is so happy for me because they feel I am a different person,” she said recently. “It’s kind of a relief that I have become more open. My personality has changed and I am more open. I am happy that finally people can know me a little bit better.”
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