Henin talks of pain of marriage break-up

DUBAI: Justine Henin admitted that the shock of the break-up of her marriage is so great that she has no immediate goal to regain the world number one spot, and can’t yet think about anything other than playing tennis over the next couple of months.

The former triple Grand Slam title-holder from Belgium spoke openly about the pain in her life, making it clear that her ability to get over the trauma will depend on how she is treated, especially during the next few weeks. Just two days before beginning the defence of her Dubai Open title she also made an appeal to be allowed privacy similar to other people’s while trying to recover.

“I want to keep my private life with the name I give it — it’s private. I am sure a lot of people understand that. You always have a lot of people who are very curious and they want to know why and who — and who cares? That’s my life. Everyone has to respect it because we all have the same rights. We can talk about tennis and I know I am a public person. I understand that perfectly.

“But as soon as I am not on a tennis court, and as soon as something touches my private life, I think I can keep it for myself, and it is a little bit like my secret garden — and I am sure people can accept that. Why would I be different, because I am a famous tennis player? I am human. And I am a person before I am a tennis player.”

Henin, who lost her top spot to Maria Sharapova after missing the Australian Open whole sorting out her affairs, won only two matches in her comeback tournament, the Open Gaz de France in Paris two weeks ago. She was beaten by Lucie Safarova, a young Czech who has yet to break the top 20. But she still believed it had been the right decision to play there.

“I think it was a brave decision and I have no regrets about that,” Henin said. “I played a few matches, to be back on the Tour, to try to find my motivation, some rhythm, and the atmosphere on the tour and that was very important for me. And Dubai is very far away after the Australian Open and so I thought ‘let’s go and face it now,’ and I already feel better about that. I have to take it step by step, it takes a little bit of time. It has been a difficult period in my life for sure but I will try to come back strongly with my tennis, and I need to accept that it will take a little bit of time.

“And I didn’t forget how to play tennis. I just have to control my emotions a little bit,” added Henin, who managed to achieve that in an hour-long ordeal with the media, despite having moments when she looked tense. I have never used tennis as a way of forgetting something else: I have just tried to face reality,” she concluded. “And now I have to try to build myself again like I did many times in my life.”

Despite her short term perspective, she does not appear to worry about long-term failure. When asked about the forthcoming retirement of Kim Clijsters, her fellow Belgian, Henin made it clear that for herself 23 was far too young to be stopping. Her first match in the second tournament in her comeback will begin on Wednesday with a second round encounter (after the customary bye accorded to all four top seeds), probably against Katarina Srebotnik, the world No. 22 from Slovenia.