Justine Henin: The enigmatic champion

It was that momentous 2003 French Open semi-final match where she gained a lot of admirers, lost a chunk of her fan following and I discovered Justine Henin-Hardenne. Justine, the ever placid and stoic girl from Liege in Belgium, had reached the Wimbledon final in 2001 and had been gradually threatening the seemingly impervious empire of Serena Williams, along with her compatriot Kim Clijsters.

The mighty Serena had just completed the self-coined ‘Serena Slam’ by capturing four consecutive Major titles from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open. Right before the French Open in 2003, when Serena had fallen to Justine in the Charleston final, perhaps alarm bells had already started ringing. To everyone’s surprise, the bells reverberated all through that drama-filled semi-final on that fateful day in Paris. It was a match which defined a career and after 2 hours and 20 minutes, with the help of a partisan crowd, when the petite 165 cm Belgian had dethroned a sobbing Serena, one could feel that it was the harbinger of something special.

Special indeed, for Justine was the true embodiment of unflinching courage, unbridled passion and an indomitable spirit. With an unrivalled single-handed backhand that was as artistic as a painter’s stroke, a forehand that would exude absolute ruthlessness and a game full of tender and subtle touches, she would mesmerise the world over and aptly get the epithet of ‘Female Federer’. With an armoury replete with effortless strokes, she made John McEnroe say that Henin is “the player I most like to watch.”

Perhaps what stood out the most was her mental fortitude. The demise of her mother Françoise Rosière to cancer when Justine was just 12, and her estrangement from her father, had transformed Justine into a serene person and a competitor who hardly ever got ruffled – qualities which were reflected when she would display unparalleled endurance to emerge triumphant in her matches. Through her conservative approach, the unassuming Belgian, lovingly called “Juju”, remained a player conspicuous in her generation.

It was Argentine coach Carlos Rodriguez, a father-figure to her, who would lead the Belgian to the path she was destined for. And it all reached its utter fulfilment when, on a June afternoon in 2003, the newly married 21-year-old wore a look of sheer disbelief and ecstasy on Court Philippe Chatrier as she became the first Belgian to win a Grand Slam singles crown. The new star, who dedicated her first Slam to her deceased mother, proved to be unstoppable. At the US Open that year, a stupendous effort from Jennifer Capriati could not fell her, nor could cramps. Justine simply surged and soared to the numero uno ranking and also annexed her only Australian Open title the following year.

The tennis world soon saw her amassing an unprecedented 7626 points in the erstwhile WTA point system and there didn’t seem to be a rival fierce enough to thwart her. In a cruel twist of fate, that rival arrived in the form of a combination of a hypoglycemia and cytomegalo virus attack which saw her add the Athens Olympic gold as the only other significant title in an illness-ravaged year.

But as the saying goes, ‘Once a champion, always a champion’, Justine resurrected herself, a feat that would culminate in a glorious comeback which saw her add her second title at Roland Garros in 2005. She was one point away from seeing her dream crushed by a determined Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round that year, but the ever unflappable Justine rose when it mattered the most. And that match would remain as the last time Henin-Hardenne had lost a set in Paris until her third round encounter with Maria Sharapova in 2010.

2006 and 2007 will forever be remembered as two glittering years in an already illustrious resume of the Belgian. She would emulate Martina Hingis’ 1997 feat of reaching all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year as she displayed spectacular finesse and untiring effort to dispatch almost every opponent that came her way. She conquered Paris once again but Wimbledon continued to elude her. In a magnificent final, Justine was one set away from completing the coveted Career Slam but it was not meant to be!