Serena: She is a good winner
2008-05-09 09:21
Berlin - She might be hinting at retirement and suffering a bad patch, but you write off world number one Justine Henin at your peril insists Serena Williams, despite the Belgian's fourth defeat in four months.
Henin made a shock exit from the German Open on Thursday when she was beaten by Russia's Dinara Safina in a two and a half hour third round marathon.
It was Henin's fourth WTA defeat since January and the Belgian came to Berlin wanting to recover some battered confidence.
She has won two tournaments on the WTA tour in 2008, but after her worst defeat, when she was hammered by Williams 6-2 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the Miami WTA tournament last month, Henin took a break to "regain her focus."
Berlin was supposed to be her bold return before Roland Garros begins on May 26.
Having won the last three French Open titles, Henin was looking to add her eighth Grand Slam title in Paris to prove she was on top of her game.
Pressure
But despite her Berlin set back, with a huge lead in the WTA rankings, Henin would have to suffer disaster at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon to be in danger of losing her world crown to nearest rival Ana Ivanovic.
And as a former world number one herself, Williams says Henin can more than cope with the pressure of being the best player on tour.
"I was surprised she lost, but she is a good winner and people have a lot of expectations on her," said Williams.
"She will play a lot better than that, she knows she can, and with that in mind, she will take a lot of solace from that fact.
"This is just one tournament, I know a lot of players who lose a lot more than four games in four months, besides things can turn round very quickly."
After her defeat by Safina, Henin said she will focus on Rome next week, her last chance to get wins under her belt before Paris, and "look at her options."
The retirement hints have been dropped this week. She has stated the Beijing Olympics will be her last, even though she will be only 30 for the 2012 games in London.
'I'm young in life'
And earlier in the week, the 25-year-old spoke of her desire to regain lost confidence in Berlin and spoke in depth about plans for her retirement, including a future of travel and education, within the next five years.
"I'm young in life, but starting to get old on the tour," Henin said on Monday. "I'm growing up and I need different things.
"Even physically I don't recover as well as I did when I was 20. That's normal.
"Now I've been playing tennis for 20 years and it's been my whole life but as a woman, as you get older, you need to think about the future.
"I'd love to go back to study. It would be a good challenge and I've been thinking about it a lot recently.
"If I can think about that now it's easier to make the sacrifices because I know there are other things coming.
"It's important to plan and say, 'That's what I want.' It might not happen because things can change, but that's the plan."
Having separated from her husband at the start of last year, Henin has made no secret of her desire to start a family after her retirement.
But despite claiming her first victory over Henin, Safina says Henin's record speaks for itself.
"Look at what she has achieved: seven Grand Slams," said Safina. "I went 18 months after 2006 when I didn't beat any top players, didn't get near them.
"It can all change very quickly on tour, it's just a case of her playing a few more tournaments and it can all turn around.
"It's not possible to win every tournament 100% of the time, we are only human beings after all."
- AFP