French Open: Clay Queen aims to regain her crown

There is someone other than Rafael Nadal who is heading back to Roland Garros this weekend to restore the aura of invincibility at the Paris Clay. She is none other than Justin Henin.

Henin, a four time French Open champion and former world no 1, returns to Roland Garros after 3 long years and is looking good to regain her crown. Henin, who has won her last 21 matches at Roland Garros, was as dominant as Nadal on clay. Her last defeat at French Open came way back in 2004, six years ago. But the 27-year-old Belgian has not played at Roland Garros since winning her fourth title in 2007, and chose to retire instead of defending her crown. It was a move that shocked tennis as she was still world no 1 then and was the favourite to win her fourth consecutive French open title.

But, following fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters, she came back to professional tennis ending her 20 month retirement in January, and went on to reach the finals of Australian Open, only to be stopped by the superwoman Serena Williams. Now, after her comeback and with a win at Stuttgart, she has once again become the crowd favourite to win the clay title.

Henin, a seven time grand slam champion, whose single handed backhand was regarded by McEnroe as the best ever in men’s or women’s tennis, will give her best to win her 5th French Open title. Whether she has now regained her top form is a question but she may not need to be at her absolute peak to win again at Roland Garros, as her leading rivals are not exactly firing on all cylinders.

The good news for Henin is that, no one except the Williams sisters are in good form. Though the bookies have installed Serena as favourite, but since winning the title in 2002 she has never again made it as far as the final. A lack of red-court pedigree makes Roalnd Garros the toughest test of the lot for her. Talking about the rest, defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova is in terrible form, Dinara Safina is struggling with a back problem that threatens her career, Maria Sharapova is similarly short of form and fitness, Clijsters has pulled out due to injury, Venus Williams is on the rise but rarely shines in Paris, Jelena Jankovic can be brilliant one day and awful the next. Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka may have broken into the top 10 in Henin’s absence but there are doubts regarding their form.

Though the above factors plays well in Henin’s favour, she faces a real threat from some lower profile players like French’s own Aravane Rezai and Martinez Sanchez. Aravane Rezai claimed a stunning win in Madrid last week, beating Henin, Jankovic and Venus along the way and Martinez is also in good touch after her title in Rome.

When asked about her French open campaign this year Henin said that though her major aim is to win the Wimbledon, but she would definetely like to win French Open. Regarding her comeback she told that it was Roger who inspired her. She said “When I saw Roger Federer winning the French Open it brought back the fire that wasn’t there any more before”.

Whether she regains her crown or not seems to be seen but the coming week will be great for the fans. Barring Serena and Venus, who have won 8 grand slams among them out of the last 16, women’s tennis has shown a lot of inconsistency in the past 5 years with as many as 8 different grand slam champions compared to 4 in men’s. Justin Henin would definitely like to keep the inconsistency going in the Women’s tennis but would she be able to beat the Williams sisters remains to be seen.