No. 1 Henin Loses 'Flame,' Retires at 25
Posted on: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 15:00 CDT
By Raf Casert
LIMELETTE, Belgium - The determination that helped Justine Henin beat bigger, stronger opponents time and again was fading.
"I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it," Henin said.
The Belgian star, 25, retired from tennis Wednesday, an abrupt ending to a career in which she won seven Grand Slam singles titles and spent more than 100 weeks ranked No. 1.
She announced her decision 1 1/2 weeks before the French Open, where she has won the past three titles and four overall.
Henin said she realized she was burned out, and she became the first woman to quit the sport while atop the WTA rankings.
"I always based everything on this motivation - this flame - that was in me. And once I lost that, I lost many, many things," Henin said.
After reaching the final at each Grand Slam tournament in 2006, she won 10 tournaments in 2007, including two majors. But this season, she started to find tournaments an ever bigger chore.
"Everything became harder," Henin said. "I felt, deep inside, something was getting out of my grasp."
She lost 6-4, 6-0 to Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open, then 6-2, 6-0 to Serena Williams at the Sony Ericsson Open in April - the worst loss for a top-ranked player in nine years.
At last week's German Open, Henin lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 to Dinara Safina. Then she pulled out of this week's Italian Open, citing fatigue.
"At the end of the match in Berlin, (retirement) all of a sudden was there as something evident," Henin said.
Henin won't have any sort of farewell tour. She is retiring immediately.
"I had reached my limits, and I feel strong and relieved that I could take this decision," she said. "There are plenty of things that I can do. There are no regrets. I did everything I had to do in tennis."
Source: Commercial Appeal, The
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