Sports Then and Now

Justine Henin reached the finals of her first Grand Slam tournament in two years.

This post was provided by tennis fan Jo Shum. Sports Then and Now is happy to post submission by sports fans, so please feel free to contact us if you have a story or sports memory you want to share.

I don’t understand why, but I feel miserably sad watching Justine Henin lose the Australian open.  By any measure, this is a far-fetched coming back only in one month and an unbelievable fight into the final.  But as she said, the dream goes on… and somehow I would really want to believe in it that it may come true.

I think she is an amazing player with such gifted techniques and steely mentality, and just for once it would be great to show that you could possibly move the mountain by determination.  Almost, almost did.

I have not seen Justine so nervous in the entire tournament, and there the same goes for Serena.  They must be battling so much in their minds.  Justine was probably trying too hard, too much, out of reach of her own ability at this stage of comeback.

She would have played excellently just by doing exactly the same as the previous matches.  But I guess this is a lesson to learn.  God’s plan, when it is meant to be.  You can do only so far so much, the rest is to god.  I do hope that she would eventually find god and trust in him.  Peace.

I feel unbelievably sad, been catching up on the news of her and finding myself so involved in her experience, her life, her passion, her breakdown, her nerves, her competitiveness, her happiness and her disappointment.

I sincerely hope that she will recover well, find the balance as she shared, be positive and works on her games, her serve, her run.  Stay positive, by the time she is fit, I am sure she is still one of the best if not the best player on tour.  Of course, that will need to be proven by also beating Williams and the other top players in big matches.  It is a goal and I think she will have the determination to just do that.

I guess by the performance of Serena, it is by far the best I have seen, and it’s so amazing that Justine could bring out the best in her too.  Somehow I feel, even though they were a bit of rivalries before, they could be greater rivals in the future.  From a view point of love and relationship, this is great.

Henin could not overcome the power of Serena Williams.

A comeback is hard, especially when she was the top player, how much better could she be, over the top?

This is such a hard decision and hard road to take, and a very brave one indeed.  I can’t imagine that she took this road so far, she was so courageous and talented to be in the final.  Being out of tournament shape, being known as the former number 1, with her technique not up to the highest standard, relying mostly on her determination to win match by match, in itself it’s an incredible journey. How can anyone imagine and take this kind of pressure?

But what is for sure, she does get tremendous support from fans and all tennis audience around the world.  Having her back is one of the greatest things for women’s tennis.  Look at the hype of excitement and passion that was sparked just by having her back again.  As I read in many articles before, one has to acknowledge how much tennis has massively missed her.
Allez, Justine.