Is this retrospection needed?Hardly.
Yet as lovers of the game we always discuss the fallacies of players of her calibre.Before embarking on commenting on her game,I would like to mention that ever since she entered the professional circuit,I have been a huge fan of her game and her and I would continue to be.Players such as Henin are expected to reach the final of every GS they play
that a semi-final appearance leading to a 'shock' defeat in wimbledon on CC would raise questions on her grass court game!In this aspect she's reminiscent of the great Federer.He has been trying on various occasions for the one slam that has eluded him all this while-the
FO.Isn't it ironic that the man stands on the brink of greatness and yet struggles every year to achieve it?For sure he possesses the game and if it weren't for the greatest clay courter of all time who stands in his way, he would have won the title twice.Ditto with Henin.Her game
though primarily suited to clay which has helped her achieve a rare hattrick at the FO and beckons even greater heights at the place,probably even match Evert's 7 FO's,has seen her do remarkably well on hard courts and grass court excepting that she has won the AO and the US opens and awaits for a career slam at SW19.Winning the US and the AO again will be difficult.There are the powerful russians,the young serbians and of course the Williamses.But she has already won them once.But why not the wimbledon?
What then is her weakness on the grass?
She has after all reached 2 finals here.2001 saw an inexperienced Henin taking on arguably the best grass court player around-Venus.Still she did manage to take a set away from the Champion.Again in 2006,although a winner the previous week at Eastbourne fell to the
french woman Amelie.It can be said that Amelie did play her finest tennis then.Again now in 2007 she has been defeated by Bartoli,another french woman.Vast difference of experience separated the two french speaking women.Henin was the clear red hot favorite. She had afterall defeated her on the only two previous meetings,the recent one being Eastbourne,both in straight sets.It definitely seemed that Henin was teaching some tennis lessons to Bartoli in the first two sets.Her game definitely did slack in the second set,giving away a break.But it
was in the final set that saw Henin play the way she had never played throughout the tournament.Afterall did she not defeat the mighty Serena though not in her best form?Where lay the problem then?Surely not mental stability because excepting for Serena,this is the girl
that has the best tennis mind.Her trademark backhand?No.Is it her forehand then?Maybe.She afterall learnt the shot too late.Her service was also not upto the mark.One would have expected her to serve and volley throughout the match.Afterall she had done it in Eastbourne
so successfully.Would she not try it against Bartoli,who is not one of the best movers on the court?Sadly she rarely did.Perhaps its a psychological thing that prevents her from winning it.
Probably it was the French woman's day.Or perhaps the time will come when Justine Henin will finally lift the venus rose water dish.Did Ivanisevic and Novotna not wait patiently until they finally triumphed?Henin said that winning the wimbey would be a great achievement.But in no way would it make her life happier after tennis.True.It's afterall a game.But to see her in the annuls of all time greats,she must win the wimbledon because few years down the lane,an absence of a wimbledon title will be a blot in her otherwise stellar career.But she will try again and again just like Federer will.Henin is 25 and Federer is 26.Yet it is Henin that has greater chance at the Wimbey than Federer because few have won the FO after 25.She has of course come through greater personal troubles.A fighter that she is,she will and we would all wait for the day when Federer wins the FO and Henin wins the Wimbledon.

Great Post Lalitha!!! :ok:

Hey I've got an Idea.....How about Justine gives Fed one of the FO titles (after all shes got plenty!)
And Fed gives Justine a Wimbledon title (he's got plenty of them!)

Then they both can rest easy....:lol:

Justine will have her chances to win Wimbledon. I think she might sneak it at the end of her career actually.

But her best chance was last year imo.

For Sure I believe that Justine will one day win the Wimbey though Fed may nat win the FO.As for trading of the GS goes yup maybe if they agree :P But Justine's heart lies in RG and will not trade it for anything ;)

Its good in a way though that there are still titles that elude Federer and Henin. It gives them something to work towards and provides them with motivation.

Your initial post makes good reading Lalitha.

I think Henin's difficulty at Wimbledon are two fold.
Firstly though she's a very good grass court player-it's not her best surface, so when she comes up against and in-form Williams or even Mauresmo she's more likely to come off second best. If they're less than 100% and she plays her best she'll win them.
But it's also the one slam she has never won-so obviously she want's it the most-she puts internal pressure on herself. This doesn't help her situation.
Of course the same could be said of Venus on clay or even at the Australian.
There's that psychological thing going on-though of course the players will rarely admit to this-for obvious reasons.
I think there's a slim chance she may snatch Wimbledon, but i think she'll need a bit of luck-Serena being less than 100% was lucky for Henin-Bartoli playing superbly wasn't, and i agree with everyone who thinks she wouldn't have beaten Venus in the final.
Interesting with the women's game over the last few years-no year in year out dominant player (Serena did dominate for about a year of course) but 4 wimbledons for Venus, 4 French for Henin, and 3 Aussis for Serena, they seem to have made certain slams their own but have difficulty with the others.

[QUOTE]
I agree on these two points.Well said.Basically I think its a psychological thing..the pressure she adds herself.That said,she's mentally tough and I still believe she can do it because she's got age on her side.

I am actually very surprised by JH lack of further success on grass. I would think her game was suited to grass. The way she dismantled Bartoli in the 1st set was quite impressive. Unfortunately, she has no stamina. Probably due to the virus she caught a couple of years ago. So once Marion made her run from side to side, she started to tire and lost her edge/sharpness. Same happened in last year's final.

I would say, it is more the speed of the court which does not suit her as she is not the most powerful player. On clay she can retrieve extra balls and move her opponents with more ease. On grass, the power as a distinctive advantage.

18 months of golden domination BT :P

I don't think Henin has particularly more trouble with Wimbledon than the AO or USO really. I just think she has had a bit more good luck in winning them, whereas with Wimbledon she's just been unfortunate to come up against an insurmountable obstacle each time.

In my opinion, as I have been ask to state.

Henin will never a Wimbledon because she cheated her way into her first slam. There is a punishment for everything and that I believe that is the punishment to the minute Belgian.

I am sure Oblivion will agree, cheating a very bad habit and should be left to thieves and gangsters.

I think another reason why Henin struggles at Wimby is because she is almost always spent by the time she reached the later rounds of Wimby. I mean by the time she reaches that stage, she had just won the FO and Eastbourne all in a span of a few weeks. She may have to eventually skip Eastbourne to ironically have a better chance at Wimby. Henin also did say that her QF match against Serena was physically and mentally taxing.

I agree with your thoughts about the physical aspect of trying to win Wimbledon after RG.BTW,can someone fill me in on what happened to make the match against Serena mentally strenuous as I missed it.I remember Serena suffering from cramp in a previous match.Was she also injured in the match against Justine?

To be brutally honest the long and the short of it is, the best chance of Justine ever winning Wimbledon is if she misses or looses in the first week of the FO.

Since Im 100% sure that she would not skip the FO just to have a better chance at wimby it is some what Ironic (I think) that if us fans want her to win wimbledon, then shes gonna have to lose early in the French **sigh** :doh:

Well, it was a revenge match. Although Serena had crapms in the previous match against Daniela, no one could know how she was on that day unitl she started playing. The thumb story was kept quiet, so Henin didn't have a chance of knowing that in advance. It was easy to see that JH was nervous in that match. We also know what happened in the AO finals when Serena was playing injured against Lindsay. So probably in JH's mind, until she shakes hads at the net, the match was never over. Therefore it was an exhausting match.

I think in the semis, she must have under estimated Bartoli having easily beaten her the previous week at Eastbourne in the semis. We all were amazed how Bartoli handled the situation for a new comer in the semis. Also she played exaclty what JH could not do. Made her run from side to side. Why didn't JH command the points as Bartoli's serves weren't that difficult to handle?

About JH's wins at USO and AO was kind of what others could not do it. I think in 2003 USO semis, Jennifer should have won that match, but as she has never appeared in a USO finals, she was nervous to win that match as she wanted it so much she just culd not deliver. Then the finals was against another nervous girl (at that time) Kim.

AO 2004, the finals was a different story, Kim was trying to get back into that match and that stupid umpire called a good point out on a break point - virtually a match point (Kim was down 3-4, 30-40 (!) in the 3rd set) for JH.

Thanks. :ok:

how about they play each other for one

:D