LONDON, (Reuters) – Two years after Justine Henin stunned the sport by announcing her retirement at the age of 25 on the eve of her French Open defence, the Belgian is back and eager to show Roland Garros what it has been missing.
Before Henin’s self-enforced break, she reigned supreme on Parisian clay, winning the title on four out of the five previous years and she is already being tipped to sweep all before her over the next two weeks.
Svetlana Kuznetsova won the tournament last year, beating Dinara Safina in a mediocre final, while Ana Ivanovic claimed the title the year before. Worthy champions as they were, neither came anywhere close to emulating the tennis conjured by Henin.
There are few better sights in tennis than the Belgian in full flow. At 5-ft-5ins (1.65m), there is not much of her but she prowls the court like an old-fashioned gunslinger, thrashing clean winners and producing angles that defy mathematical explanation.
However, since returning to the Tour in January she has been steady rather than spectacular — not quite the impact that compatriot Kim Clijsters enjoyed when winning the U.S.
Open last year after coming out of retirement. Serena Williams stood between her and the Australian Open title at the start of the year — proof that not all Belgian women can take a lengthy career time-out and return directly to pocket a grand slam title.
Henin won her first title since returning last month on clay in Stuttgart yet bailed out in the first round of Madrid a week later and her game is not quite back to the level she was at in 2007 when she spent all but seven weeks ranked world number one.
