Henin-Hardenne Gets Her Revenge in Madrid

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The New York Sun

Justine Henin-Hardenne defeated Amelie Mauresmo 6–4, 6–3 yesterday to win her first WTA Championships, securing the no. 1 ranking, and capping off a stellar season in which she reached the finals of all four Grand Slams. With the last women’s tournament in the books, here’s a final report on 2006.

Henin-Hardenne: In one weekend, the 24-year-old Belgian took revenge on the two women who prevented her from completing a single-season Grand Slam. In her first tournament after a six-week layoff with a torn muscle in her right leg, she defeated a listless Maria Sharapova in the semifinals 6–2, 7–6(5), and she did it by abandoning the baseline strategy that failed her at the U.S. Open. Instead, Henin-Hardenne played serve-and-volley on about 40% of her first serves and took lots of risks when returning. A more subtle adjustment perhaps paid bigger dividends: serving down the center line. Henin-Hardenne often struggles to keep her first-serve percentage at 60% or better; on Saturday, serving over the lowest point of the net helped her cause. She finished with seven aces and suffered no consequences when she served to Sharapova’s forehand on the ad court. Her aggressive play also gave Sharapova fewer chances to find her rhythm. Henin-Hardenne was without a doubt the best tennis player in the world this season, though considering the Belgian’s history of health problems, the future favors Sharapova.

Sharapova: The 19-year-old Russian won her second Grand Slam title, finished the year at no. 2, and remains the odds-on favorite to capture the no. 1 ranking next year. Yet her season ended on a sour note against Henin-Hardenne. From the outset, Sharapova had no energy, and for most of the match she hit awkward backhands and too many balls in the middle of the court. She double-faulted six times and made 34 errors. She barely bothered to shriek. On one point in the second set, Henin-Hardenne aced Sharapova on a serve that landed in the middle of the box (Sharapova, miffed, didn’t move the single step to her left for a backhand). It was hardly a performance one would expect from the favorite to win the tournament.

Mauresmo: At 27, the Frenchwoman long on talent and short on major titles finally came of age. At the Australian Open, she won after Henin-Hardenne quit with an upset stomach. At Wimbledon, she beat the Belgian again, this time recovering from a sloppy first set to win the most compelling match of the season. A shoulder injury lowered her expectations at last week’s championships, but she still managed to defeat Henin-Hardenne in round-robin play and prevail in three sets over Kim Clijsters in the semifinals. When 2007 begins, Mauresmo will have one goal left to accomplish: winning the French Open.

Clijsters: Clijsters’s performance last week was emblematic of her year: so-so. Many thought her victory at the 2005 U.S. Open was a sign of things to come, but she sustained injuries at key moments this year (in the Australian Open semifinals and before the U.S. Open).When she was healthy, she often lacked tenacity. If Clijsters sticks to her plan and retires after next season, it would be a blow to the sport.

The other Russians: If it’s too early to call the much-heralded Russian Revolution a bust, it’s at least clear that Sharapova’s counterparts have much work to do. Three other Russians — Nadia Petrova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Elena Dementieva — qualified for the year-end championships, and they performed terribly (their combined record for the week was 2–7).

Petrova won her first match against an out-of-practice Mauresmo, only to lose to Martina Hingis, an entertaining but hardly imposing player who moved inside the top eight after coming out of retirement. Kuznetsova could only muster a win against Dementieva; against Clijsters and Sharapova, she won a total of seven games, losing 6–1, 6–1 and 6–1, 6-4, respectively.

Dementieva was worse still (0–3).Despite her obvious athletic gifts, as well as some tips from former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, she cannot improve her horrible serve. Against Sharapova, Dementieva coughed up 16 double faults and lost her serve seven out of nine times. She had 16 more doubles in her next two matches, including five in three games against Clijsters in the second set, which Dementieva lost at love. One has to wonder if her authoritative groundstrokes can continue to compensate for the worst shot in tennis, and it would be no surprise if she failed to qualify for the championships next year.

Hingis: The former world no. 1 had a fine season in her first year on the tour since she retired in 2002, winning two titles and playing the second-most matches among the top eight players. Given her consistency and superior tactics, she could move higher still in 2007, perhaps as high as no. 4. Don’t expect her to win any majors, though, unless much of the field withdraws with injuries.

***

In Shanghai this week, James Blake has a lucky draw and a chance to prove that he belongs in the Masters Cup, the final tournament of the season among the top eight players in the world.

Blake is ranked no. 8, but the four biggest threats to win this indoor event — Roger Federer, defending champion David Nalbandian, and the two men with the best serves, Andy Roddick and Ivan Ljubicic — were drawn together in the same group. Lining up with Blake are Rafael Nadal, who has disappointed since reaching the Wimbledon final, Nikolay Davydenko, a fine player but not a man who dominates matches, and Tommy Robredo, the weakest member of the bunch. Blake opens against Nadal today; he’s 2–0 against the Spaniard and is not bothered by the high-bouncing forehands that often trouble Federer. Yesterday, Federer opened the tournament with a 3–6, 6–1, 6–1 victory over Nalbandian, who recovered from a two-set deficit against Federer in last year’s final. Roddick defeated Ljubicic 6–4, 6–7(9), 6–1. He had 19 aces and did not face a single break point.

tperrotta@nysun.com


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