I will leave the conratulations Maria thread for the diehard Maria fans, I was actually supporting Maria but am more interested to know what you all make of Justine's slam year. I have put this in the tournament section as it is about Grand Slam performances.

It's a shame she lost for her, but if someone is better than you on the day then what can you do. The serve seemed to be the key, 50% 1st serves in a Grand Slam final is not good, more so if you're up against one of the best servers in the game. Perhaps it almost would've been more dignfied for her to lose in the semis than be holding the runner's up trophy again.

Getting to all four slam finals is an amazing achievement regardless of whether she won or lost them; however a player of Justine's calibre may not be happy with having lost so many, afterall at the start of the year she had a ratio of 4-1 in GS finals, excellent. Now that has dipped to 5-4. Still, getting to 9 Slams finals and winning 5 is something most players could only dream of. She has lost to Amelie and Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova in Grand Slam Finals this year, two players who most would say she is better than when she is at her best. This will a bitter pill to swallow. I hope it doesn't knock her confidence at all. In the Australian Open by the semi I thought she was playing teh best tennis of anyone at the tournament and would've won not for her infection. At Wimbledon I thought she played some of the best tennis of the tournament too. Against Lindsay, Justine was flawless at Flushing Meadows; it was most definitely the highest level of tennis I personally saw this US Open. I was wondering, why couldn't she produce this level of tennis in the said finals? (obviously at AO she was injured and Wimbledon perhaps Amelie is just too tricky to beat on grass although Justine did do herslef in somewhat with unnecessary errors), but particularly so at the USO Final; her 1st serves had been going up then they plummeted in the final; not what you want to happen. To me she has seemed to lack the fire that we have seen from her, in her last two GS Finals. Is she injured still?

Anyway a good year nevertheless, hopefully she'll get to some more slam finals next year and have a few face offs with my Serena :D

But im sure that next year if she gets to other slam finals she wants to add different slams to her tally other than the French. She says the French is ger fav slam which I believe because of its history with her mother and everything, but looking back I think Justine would swap her 2006 French title for the 2006 Wimbledon title, as she knows this was one of her best chances to win Wimbers this year.

Hopefully she will stay healthy and finish the year on an up by winning the YECs; after her performances this year she is surely one of the favourites and I think wold be the most deserving winner so I hope she wins it now :)

:Excellent post! :ok:

I do feel sorry for Justine, I do think that she is a much better player than Maria overall AND throughout this year and getting to 4 finals was amazing, so comingn away with one would seem a bit dissappointing. I am nto sure what the problem is, but she has seemed to lack fire in the finals this year. Maybe it is tiredness, who knows? I think given her viruses etc her achievement is even more remarkable. I think of all the players out there she has th emost cmplete game and the most versatile tactics. If she can play her best she can undo anyone. I was sad at wimbers as I feel ti is one that JHH should have won, and also one that Amelie deserved so it was hard to decide who I wanted, but I went for Amelie becasue I thought this might be her last chance to prove herself and if she did not she would lose belief. I think it is a shame that JHH seems to be a very much maligned player and also one who does not get the credit she deserves. It is annoying when you see all the attention Shara gets in comparison. :angry: I can see that people are nto going to warm to JHH personality wise, but I think she is just a quiet person who wants to get on with it really. And of course she is not hot in the galmour stakes like Sharapova, so she tends to get ignored. It's about the tennis at the end of the day.

Anyway well done to her though, a very good year on balance, bettered only by MoMo getting two slams, but when you weigh up the factthat JHH got one and got to all 4 finals, I kind of fele that equals that and surpasses it in many ways. :ok:

Hope she stays healthy for next year :ok:

Yes... a very good quality post.

What I worry about is what will happen to Justine next year... as she has SO MANY points to defend from reaching the 4 GS finals and winning many other tournaments, surely she won't be able to do the same next year and then she will start to fall in the rankings. But for now, I think she needs to work on her mentality in the finals as she doesn't seem to believe that she can win against them. When the camera was on her during the final, she always seemed very anxious and very worried that she was about to lose and this attitude could have been one of the contributing factors that led to her losing the 3 slam finals out of 4. Still, nothing taken away from Justine, she has had a great year and is the deserved number 1.... even if I don't like her much! :lol:

My only conlusion can be that it was tiredness holding her back, (unless lack of match practice although that still doesn't explain the dipped serve %). Justine did seem a little edgy against Maria from what I've seen but she is very mentally steely in almost a Chris Evert like fashion. I would've said normally she was the more mentally strong of the two. I hope these couple of finals were just a blip in Justine getting back to full fitness and the peak of her powers, I'll bet that the next Grand Slams final she gets to (as long as she's not facing Serena ;) ) she'll win it. Afterall she was world number one in 2003 and is only really just getting back to that form and consistency over the last 6-9 months I feel so perhaps we'll see even better things from Justine next year.

I hope that tiredness doesn't impede her anymore in Grand Slams as it would be a great shame, I say this as someone who does not warm to her and has made no secret of it. But JHH is a great champion and has a wonderful game (even though I do get a bit tired of people comparing it to Federer's or Steffi Graf's which seems a bit hyperbolous to me), nevertheless when Justine plays her best tennis and is winning that is good for women's tennis so I hope she continues to do well and prosper. I think most would agree that when they play their best the Williams sisters and JHH are the best players out there; so I hope they all get back to their best next year.

Well hopefully looking at the rankings as Justine, Maria and Amelie; if Serena is doing well then there will be a real chance for her to pick lots of points and get back right up to the top B)

I agree Justine is better all round than Maria, but I think it's quite frightening for Justine and the rest that Maria has won this tournament despite having a really ropey forehand, and no touch or volleys. Is this because she is not naturally right handed? Imagine how tough she will prove to beat when she becomes competent in those areas! And she hasn't finished growing yet, certainly not in terms of 'filling out'! :D

Her forehand was far from ropey in the final - in fact, it was the more effective wing for Maria.

Also by all accounts she was successful at the net when she came in. I think that was most likely Miss.Sharapova's best performance to date. That will be the benchmark of form she will try to recapture in the future.

Yeah but let's be honest, it's not consistent LDF!

If she could get that forehand going solidly all the time, and develop some feel and nets skills (even basic! roflmao ), she will be virtually unstoppable because she has so many weapons, so much aggression and such great mental strength

I still think her 04 wimby final against Serena was Maria's greatest ever performance! :D

Only because Serena totally self destructed and gave her entire court for target practice roflmao

Yeah i think people do have to remember serena's performance in the 04 wimby final :rolleyes: roflmao

Oh definitely, apart from the final, Maria's forehand was a bit inconsistent (well, very against Golovin).

I think it'd be good for Maria to play a few doubles tournaments to help her volleying, but I don't see that happening.

Well let's be honest it was pretty easy to forget in fact I try to! :rolleyes: