Ninth season win for Henin
2007-10-21 16:13
Zurich - World number one Justine Henin
secured her ninth WTA title of the season on Sunday, beating
French teenager Tatiana Golovin 6-4 6-4 in the Zurich Open
final.
The Belgian has won all but four of the 13 tournaments she
has entered this year and is now unbeaten in 20 matches - her
last loss coming against Marion Bartoli in July's Wimbledon
semi-finals.
"It's been the best season of my career and to win my ninth
title of the year is pretty amazing," Henin said in an on-court
interview.
"I needed a bit of time to come into the match today as
Tatiana was putting me under a lot of pressure but slowly, but
surely I came back."
Golovin, the 19-year-old world number 18 who had lost her
three previous meetings with Henin, made an aggressive start to
Sunday's opening set and was rewarded with an early 3-1 lead.
Henin needed a stroke of good fortune to level after a lucky
net-cord bounce gave her a chance to break back.
She duly converted that break point after forcing Golovin
wide and was handed a further decisive break when the French
youngster hit three unforced errors to fall 4-5 behind.
Golovin called for an injury time-out but it had no apparent
effect on Henin's composure with the Belgian serving out for the
set and then breaking ahead at the start of the second.
Golovin threatened a fightback after managing an immediate
re-break but then dropped serve once more to fall 2-1 behind
with what proved to be the last break of the match.
"She's absolutely the best," said Golovin, after losing her
second final against Henin in the space of three weeks.
"She's so solid, but she has also been a great inspiration
to me, and the more I play against top players like Justine the
more I hope to learn."