Australian Open 2010: Justine Envy

The WTA comeback drill may be getting old, but Justine Henin, apparently, is not. It has taken the pint-sized Belgian all of two tournaments to get into her groove after ending her nearly two-year hiatus from the game, and she has answered the prayers of millions of purists and connoisseurs of the game in the process. There were fears (or hopes, in the case of a few sadists and most of her contemporaries) that Henin’s high-risk, precision-based game would take plenty of time to put together after such a long interval and that she would, unlike compatriot Kim Clijsters late last year, find it extremely difficult to adjust her body to the rigors of a Grand Slam fortnight. But what do you know – at 27 years of age, Henin’s reflexes, court sense, explosive power and lightning quick movement are still as good as they ever were, even if her serve and stamina are not. And is stamina really a matter of concern, if you can brush off a determined semifinal opponent 6-1, 6-0 in under an hour?

Big Day for tennis : Serena Williams Vs Jutine henin australian open 2010

Henin’s biggest test, however, is yet to come – the hobbling but still ferocious Serena Williams awaits her in the tournament final on Saturday. Just how ridiculous is it to bet against Serena in a Grand Slam final? The woman has lost all of 3 finals her entire career in 14 tries – and 2 of those losses were at the hands of her sister, who’s no cowering little spring chicken herself. The Henin-Serena head-to-head record stands at 7-6 in Serena’s favor, but importantly, Henin is 4-2 against Serena in Grand Slam matches, having won all three of their quarterfinal clashes in that banner year for her, 2007. Now this may or may not be a good thing for Henin, considering Serena’s almost savage thirst to inflict vengeance on players who have beaten her in the past (Exhibit A: Maria Sharapova and that embarrassingly one-sided 2007 Australian Open final), but statistically at least, it should help Henin go into the match with a fair amount of confidence.

Hard as this may be to believe, this will be the first time ever that Henin and Serena will face off in a Grand Slam final. While the prospect of facing a rampaging Serena in such a pressure-filled match is bound to take a toll on anyone’s nerves (just ask Dinara Safina), there’s one thing that may just turn out to be the crucial difference between a blowout and a titanic struggle. The bandages on Serena Williams legs have increased with each match this tournament, and her movement has correspondingly got poorer at each increase. The woman was almost limping in the first half of her match against Victoria Azarenka (never mind her sudden burst of energy in the 2^nd and 3^rd sets – I’ll just put that down to adrenaline and anger), and her footwork against Li Na wasn’t especially jaw-dropping either. She has played (and won) the doubles tournament along with her singles commitments, which means she’s spent considerably greater time on the court than Henin. And at this stage of her career, fatigue is not something that can be completely ruled out, even for a big stage performer like Serena.

On the other hand, Henin seems to have been getting better as the tournament has progressed. Her serve remains a liability, but her consistency off that beautiful backhand wing has improved and her forehand is finding the corners like never before. Her frequent forays to the net have helped befuddle the mostly one-dimensional ball-bashers into submission, and if anything, her volleys have actually improved in the time she’s taken off, both in terms of aesthetics and execution. She’s returning serve phenomenally well, and has the statistics to back that observation. Most crucially, however, Henin has lost none of her aggressive verve when it comes to playing the big points of a match, making sure she dictates those game-changing and match-turning moments with oomph and fearlessness.

There’s no doubt that Henin is playing better off the ground than Serena at the moment, so it may just come down to how well the two women serve and return. Serena clearly has the superior serve, a serve unlike any that Henin has had to stare down so far in her comeback, so the number of balls that Henin gets into play off Serena’s delivery will be vital. Henin’s ability to move her opponents from side to side with the sharp angles and variations in spin and depth that she puts on her groundstrokes may also come in handy, particularly since Serena is not moving around the court too comfortably. But lest anyone forget, that serve which she’s vowed to turn into a fearsome weapon come Wimbledon is currently far from being a weapon of any kind, so she’ll have to make sure that she consistently hits the right spots with it and avoids making any untimely double faults. Even if she does manage that, Serena will still likely gobble up both her first and second serves, which is why Henin’s return of serve will be of such critical importance. Don’t be surprised if the match turns into a break-fest, with the woman capable of holding her serve with even a modicum of authority coming up trumps.

Henin doesn’t often have a ‘bad day’ once she steps on the court, but unfortunately for her, Serena almost invariably runs into sizzling form once she’s into the latter stages of a Slam. However, I believe that even if Serena does manage to strike all the right notes on Saturday, Henin’s best tennis is still capable of challenging the American. And Serena’s injuries and fatigue will likely figure into how dialed-in she is in the final. We’ve never been witness to the two most competitive women of the WTA in the past decade battling it out in the final of a Major, so the match will likely be a crapshoot that can turn on the smallest of nudges. I’m putting my money on Justine coming through – she’s undoubtedly the fresher player, and she’ll also be that much hungrier, because I don’t think she’ll be able to sleep at night if she fails to win the first Grand Slam of her comeback; a feat that Kim Clijsters accomplished without so much as a grimace. Never underestimate the power of envy.