TENNIS.com - Features - An Enigma Till the End: Justine Henin retires

By Kamakshi Tandon

Click here to recap Henin's 2007 French Open victory.

"I have lived everything and given everything," said Justine Henin as she retired from tennis as the reigning No. 1. "It is my life as a woman that begins now."

© Mark Renders/Getty Images

She said it with a smile.

"I'm here to announce that I'm putting a definitive end to my tennis career," Justine Henin told the crowd assembled at her press conference in Belgium on Wednesday.

The smile broadened self-consciously as she absorbed the stunned reaction. News of her impending departure had already circulated but confirmation still carried a thud of surprise. "It's a shock for many people," she continued. "But for me, it's a decision I've thought hard about for quite a while now."

That too came as a surprise. An intense competitor who treated her career with utmost seriousness, Henin was one of the last players expected to walk away from the sport while she remained a Grand Slam contender. But at just 25, she has become the first player to retire while ranked No. 1.

"Maybe people will think I'm still young, but in life there are no rules," she said. "I've invested enormously in my sport. Since I was 5 years old, I've only lived for that... I will disappear from the rankings next Monday with the No. 1 number and immense pride."

"I feel no regrets. On the contrary, it's more like a relief, more of a look toward the future."

Her explanation was simple enough: She no longer feels the need to keep playing.

Henin traced that feeling back to the final of the year-end championships in Madrid, where she recorded a three hour, 25 minute victory against the woman who stands to replace her as No. 1, Maria Sharapova. "That day I said to myself, I have lived everything and given everything," Henin recalled.

It marked the beginning of a period of self-examination, one concluded after last week's defeat to Dinara Safina in Berlin. "In Berlin, it really became obvious - I had no desire to be there... I had lost the flame."

In abruptness and reasoning, Wednesday's announcement recalled the 1999 retirement of Steffi Graf, Henin's childhood idol. Though older then than Henin is now, Graf was previously the highest-ranked player to retire when she stopped while No. 3 in the world.

"Steffi, she telephoned yesterday evening. She didn't know," said Henin. "I told her and she was surprised. But she congratulated me for my career. It was nice."

And what now? "It is my life as a woman that begins now."

Justine Henin (left), Carlos Rodgriguez (right)

© Dominque Faget/AFP Getty

Serene and relaxed as she announced her retirement during a press conference at her tennis academy in Limelette, Belgium, Henin grew emotional only when she thanked long-time coach Carlos Rodriguez for his support during her career. The two have worked together since Henin was 14 years old, establishing one of the longest player-coach relationships in the sport.

Rodriguez sat beside Henin as she made her retirement speech and briefly took the mike afterwards.

He began light-heartedly - "I'm out of work," he joked - but quickly grew teary. "Justine is doing what she wants, so even if I'm very emotional I'm happy for her," Rodriguez said. "Thanks to her, I've become somebody."

Rodriguez observed that Henin had won her first WTA tournament outdoors in Antwerp in 1999, and her last indoors in Antwerp this February. "That completes the circle," he said.

"It's a tough day for us because you don't erase 10 years in one day. I
think our history as player and a coach was like a marriage - for better or
for worse."
- Kamakshi Tandon

Henin has few concrete plans, but will remain involved with her foundation as well as the tennis academies she and long-time coach Carlos Rodriguez have recently established in Belgium and Florida. She has also mused about taking time to do things she's missed out on, like ski trips and going back to school.

"I hope to have kids when I have found the right person with whom to start a family, but there is no urgency" she added. "It will come when it will come."

As for her goodbye to tennis, Henin called it "the end of a childhood dream." The dream started when she started unfurling one-handed backhands at her local courts at the age of 5, took hold when she attended the French Open women's final as a 10-year-old and promised her mother that some day she would be the one vying for the title. It began turning into reality after she came under the tutelage and unstinting belief of Rodriguez at 14, continuing for 12 fruitful years before its abrupt end this week.

But even for a player who has spent her whole career confounding others in one way or another, Henin's timing could hardly be stranger. Needing just another Grand Slam title or two to edge past her generational rivals, she stopped less than two weeks before entering the French Open as a three-time defending champion. Though she has suffered a number of early losses in the past few months and dropped bagel sets to both Sharapova and Serena, the current state of flux in the women's game means Henin would still have been one of the favorites for the title.

Instead, her haul of seven Grand Slams, 41 titles and 117 weeks at No. 1 leaves her hovering somewhere near the top of a talented peer group that includes Serena Williams (eight Grand Slams), Venus Williams (six) and Martina Hingis (five).

If records and statistics weren't sufficient motivation, what about her game itself? Henin has always been driven by her desire to reach greater heights on the court. Despite some early success, the 5'5" Belgian was initially considered too mentally- and physically-suspect to reach the very top. She choked a 6-2, 4-2 lead to compatriot Kim Clijsters at the 2001 French Open and was overpowered by Venus Williams at Wimbledon a few weeks later.

But she went to work on her fitness and her forehand, putting herself through gruelling workouts under Pat Etcheberry in Florida and emerging as a player transformed. The work paid dividends as she went on to win three out of four Slams starting with the 2003 French Open, defeating her increasingly bitter rival Clijsters in the final each time.

Along the way, two landmark matches earned her a reputation as a ruthless and gritty competitor: the infamous 'hand-raising' incident in the French Open semifinals against Serena, and a gutsy fightback from 6-4, 5-2 down against Jennifer Capriati in the US Open semifinals.

Despite her small size, a game that combined power with variety allowed Justine Henin to hold her own, earning her the nickname "the little Belgian that could."

© Mark Renders/Getty Images

In an era dominated by power hitters, Henin was dubbed "the little Belgian that could." But the effort required to maintain such a high level took its toll. She spent much of the following year sidelined with a virus, and striking gold at the Athens Olympics was her only significant triumph that year.

Henin has played sparingly ever since, but established herself as the finest claycourt player in women's tennis by winning the next three French Opens. She was no slouch on other surfaces either, also reaching the finals of the remaining three Grand Slams in 2006. But she created controversy once again by retiring four games from defeat against Amelie Mauresmo in the Australian Open final that year, giving the Frenchwoman her first Slam win in rather anticlimactic fashion. Before she ended the year by winning the championships in Madrid, she gave a little-noticed foreshadowing of Wednesday's announcement. "I think I’ll play two years more, if my own body lets me do that," she said. "I still think my best tennis is still to come."

At least the latter was an understatement.

In 2007, the Belgian was once again an international woman of mystery as she skipped the Australian Open for personal reasons, soon revealed to be the breakup of her four-year marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne. Upon her return, however, the de-hyphenated Henin immediately established herself as the dominant force in the women's game, losing just four matches during the year. What now turns out to be her last Grand Slam triumph was also her finest. During the US Open, she defeated the Williams sisters back to back for the first time in her career with a memorable display of flowing, aggressive all-court tennis that proved capable of subduing the game's heaviest hitters.

Perhaps that was as good as it gets. Yet even as Henin reached a peak on court, she seemed to undergoing an emotional transformation on and off it.

Since the death of her mother from cancer when she was 12, Henin had come to view life as a battle and barricaded herself against all but a few close insiders. But following her divorce, she grew open to the idea that strength and support could be drawn from the outside world. At the same time, she began to accept the tense moments of competition as something to be relished rather than endured, rather like her erstwhile hobby of skydiving.

"I think it’s normal to change after such a testing experience. You’re going to come to know the true Justine," predicted Rodriguez.

Henin reconnected with her estranged family last spring, going to visit her brother in hospital when he was involved in a car accident. After winning the French Open for the third straight time, she dedicated the win to them. "Today, finally, we are united in this joy and we can share this moment, and it's great," she said. "Each single second counted during this French Open. I enjoy my life even better now."

While Henin continued to keep her private life strictly private, she was also shaking off some off her reserve as a player, becoming more relaxed in public and more comfortable embracing the crowds during big matches - even in the daunting bustle of the Big Apple. "I felt a great difference this time in New York with my fans and the people coming up to me much more easily than in the past,” she said after winning the US Open.

Though her her growing contentment had the potential to provide new motivation for continuing, it may have ended up extinguishing her competitive drive. "I stopped before Roland Garros because I asked myself if I could produce a better Roland Garros than last year, and I realised that I couldn't," she said on Wednesday. "Winning Wimbledon would not make me happier than I am. I could never dream of Wimbledon. It was destiny. I didn't feel myself capable. It was too much for me."

Goodbye, Justine. We were just getting to know you.