Seles vs. Henin
by Prip
Justine Henin had certainly been my pick to win this fourth round match,
and the 18-year-old Belgian had everything going for her coming in. Hot
on a 13-match winning streak and playing absolutely beautiful tennis,
the youngster had the exact game to take Monica out of the draw.
Seles looks like she has put on quite a bit more excess weight over
the year-end break, and has mellowed a lot in her tennis. With
footwork already the main weakness in her game, Monica now seems
even more reluctant to get into position to hit the ball, and would
rather adjust her stroke mechanics instead. I personally feel that
Monica has reached a stage where she feels like she's just going to
play at the level she is at, that is, to not work really hard to
improve, and will take things as they come. If she wins a match
against a Hingis or a Williams or a Davenport, great, and if she
doesn't, it's absolutely no shame at all.
Henin came out to a very slow start, and left people wondering if
she was feeling the effects of having played so much tennis. She
"woke up" soon enough, though, and started blasting those tremendous
backhands she has. Playing absolutely brilliant tennis, she
out-rallied Monica from the baseline, and made beautiful net
approaches. There is no question that there is something absolutely
remarkable about this young lady, and the possibilities for her are
endless. Providing she can get through her career without too many
injuries, Justine Henin holds the future of tennis in her hands. In
my opinion, her compatriot Kim Clijsters doesn't even come close to
the capabilities Henin has.
Unfortunately for Justine, she still has trouble closing out matches.
Up 4-2 in the second, she held 3 game points on Monica's serve for a
5-2 lead, but couldn't convert a single one, and lost 5 points in a
row. To Monica's credit, she came up with 5 huge serves, which Justine
could barely get her racquet on. Nevertheless, Justine had the match
in the palms of her hands, and choked it away. The stats describe the
match very well: her first serve percentage dropped like a rock, she
committed a tom of unforced errors especially on her forehand, and
had a total of 11 double-faults, with half coming in the final set.
Monica, seeing the opening, immediately sprang into action, and took
full advantage of the youngster's nerves. She ended up taking the
match 4-6 6-4 6-4, but anyone watching it would have to come
away a true believer in the Belgian girl. The key for her now is
being able to put matches like these (refer to her near misses against
Lindsay Davenport) away and move on.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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