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Sports / Tennis
Henin glad to shed Williams sisters fear factor
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-08 11:36
NEW YORK - Justine Henin said she felt she had made an important
statement by beating American Venus Williams on Friday to reach the final
of the US Open.
Justine Henin of Belgium celebrates defeating Venus Williams of the US
after their match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows,
New York, September 7, 2007. [Reuters]?
The top seed beat the Wimbledon champion 7-6 6-4 in a match of the
highest quality to set up a final against former champion Svetlana
Kuznetsova of Russia.
Despite her win over Serena Williams in the quarter-finals, Henin had
lost seven of her previous eight meetings with Venus and many observers
had predicted a win for the American.
"It's a great feeling," she told reporters.
"I really believed I could do it, and that's maybe why I did achieve it.
I don't think a lot of people thought I could beat her here in this
tournament."
In the four and a half years since she last played Venus, Henin has won
all six of her grand-slam titles and reached the top of the world
rankings.
"I didn't believe enough in myself, didn't trust myself enough in the
last few years against them (the Williams sisters).
"And then this year a lot of things have changed. I trust myself much
more. I still have a lot of respect, but I'm not scared any more.
"It's been really, really important to me in this tournament to play both
of them. It was a great challenge and I did it, so it's great."
Henin said her tactics had worked perfectly.
"It was very clear in my head, Venus likes to play when she has angles,"
she said.
"She loves to move. She doesn't like that much that we play in the
middle, then open the court a little bit more.
"I think the key was I was so aggressive on the return. And I served very
well, too.
"The one who was taking the opportunities was winning, that's for sure.
It was just a battle of who was going to take the chances.
"The end of the first set was great tennis. It was high quality, and I
played very well in the tiebreak. At 5-3 I did my best, but I was just
trying to play every point 100 percent.
"Venus gave her best, too. I think it was a very good match. I'm happy
about this one."
Henin said her 14-2 winning record against Kuznetsova would be of little
importance going into Saturday's final.
"Last time I lost to Svetlana on clay in Berlin," she said.
"It was a different situation, so going to be like a little revenge for
me tomorrow."
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