Sunday, September 09, 2007

Tennis: Justine Henin Wins 2nd U.S. Open [J. Mark English]

This is from Tennis.com:

Psst. The name is Justine Henin. Get to know her.

Might just be one of the greatest tennis players ever. Is certainly the undisputed No. 1 at the moment. As of Saturday night, she owns two U.S. Open championships and seven Grand Slam titles overall.

So let's get that correct. Everybody now: Justine Henin.

Overwhelming No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 in the final, the top-seeded Henin capped a dominating run through the U.S. Open in which she didn't drop a set and became the first woman to win a major title while beating both Williams sisters along the way.

"This one is maybe the most important one. The quality I played in the last few matches has been amazing, and it's a great feeling, because I had a tough draw," said Henin, the 2003 Open champion. "I had a lot of things to prove to myself. Not to anyone else, but to myself. And I did it."

Yet both times she conquered New York, someone got her name wrong during the postmatch trophy-and-check ceremony.

Four years ago, a representative of the main U.S. Open sponsor called her "Christine." On Saturday night, CBS announcer Dick Enberg referred to her as "Justine Henin-Hardenne" — even though she dropped the hyphenated part after separating from her husband at the beginning of the year.

Labels: , , ,