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Factbox Justine Henin
14/05/2008 16:30 - (SA)
May 14 - Factbox on Belgium's Justine Henin, who
announced her retirement with immediate effect on Wednesday.
* Born June 1, 1982 in Liege, Belgium.
* Turned professional in 1999, and captured 41 singles
titles, including seven grand slams during her career.
* Won her debut WTA Tour event in Antwerp.
* Became first Belgian to reach a singles final at Wimbledon
in 2001, where she was beaten by Venus Williams. Went on to
become the first Belgian to win a grand slam title when she
overwhelmed compatriot Kim Clijsters to win the 2003 French
Open.
* Overcame Clijsters to win her second grand slam title at
the U.S. Open in 2003 and then again in the 2004 Australian Open
final.
* Won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics despite being
plagued by an energy-sapping viral illness.
* Won the French Open in 2005 and 2006, only the fifth woman
to win back-to-back Roland Garros titles in the professional
era.
* Reached the final of all four grand slam tournaments in
2006, becoming the first player to achieve such a feat and reach
the final of the end-of-season Championships since Steffi Graf
in 1993.
* Secured the year-end number one spot on her way to winning
her first WTA Championships in Madrid.
* Began 2007 by missing the Australian Open to deal with the
breakdown of her four-year marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne, but
went on to win her third consecutive French Open in May with
victory over Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
* Won grand slam title number seven with victory over
Svetlana Kuznetsova for her second U.S. Open trophy.
* Ended season by beating Maria Sharapova 5-7 7-5 6-3 in an
epic final lasting three hours and 24 minutes to win her second
consecutive WTA Championships.
* Began the 2008 season with victories in Sydney and Antwerp
but was soundly beaten by Sharapova in the quarter-finals of the
Australian Open between those triumphs. Failed to advance past
the quarter-finals of last three tournaments and withdrew from
this week's Italian Open citing fatigue.
* May 14, Still ranked number one in the world, announced
her retirement with immediate effect at a press conference.
- Reuters
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