Justine vs. Serena should be a classic rivalry. They’re pure opposites, right down to the way they lined up at the baselime to start a point last night: Williams wearing black, standing still, stolid, looking right into her opponent's eyes; Henin in bright orange, doing her little-step dance to the right before she served, looking everywhere but at Williams, lost in her own world of intensity. You know everything that Serena’s thinking—was it just me, or did the camera catch her staring across the net and saying a certain word that begins with “b” early in the second set? With Henin, you have no idea what the score of the match is at any given moment. Watching Henin a couple weeks ago in Montreal, Justin Gimelstob quoted John Wooden: “A champion should always look the same no matter what the score is.” This is certainly true with Justine—she always looks frantic out there.
In 2007, Henin has played frantic tennis against Williams and brought her best to this rivalry. She’s won at three Slams, twice in straight sets. It’s Serena who hasn’t lived up to the twin billing. Last night she was flat, literally, from the beginning. In the opening game, she stood flat-footed and made an error, and was caught the same way by a Henin forehand that she made almost no effort to track down. Williams usually works her way into a match and reins in her game, and she did perk up in this one, making a couple sensational gets later. But even then I felt like she was a step slower moving to her right than usual. She kept herself in the first set mainly with some strong serving, hitting three aces to hold at 5-5.
Henin also served well in the first set, for her. She may have a low first-serve percentage—it hovered around 50 percent—but that’s a somewhat misleading stat with her. She’s always put a premium on not letting her serve be attacked, à la Martina Hingis, which means hitting deep, flat, high-risk second serves. Last night she picked her serving spots well at times, hitting an ace for 5-3 in the first and winning a point by going at Serena’s body at 5-4. Still, later in that game she double-faulted at set point, and Serena drilled her second serve for a winner to break for 5-5. Henin’s serve remains the wildcard in her game, the one thing she can’t quite count on. But like fellow undersized pros Michael Chang and Lleyton Hewitt, she’d rather win or lose service points on her own terms.
In the key moments, like the first-set tiebreaker, Serena’s inconsistency caught up with her—at this stage, she couldn’t rely on her serve to bail her out. In the breaker, she netted a backhand, hit a forehand lob long, put another forehand into the net, and was generally reacting to Henin’s moves rather than dictating.
By the second set, Henin was in full dervish mode, whirling around to send her forehand into the corners—it’s her version of Federer’s “full flight.” When she really wants a point, Henin will do whatever it takes to hit a forehand. She has what many people like to call the best backhand in tennis, but it’s the forehand that gets the job done. Henin had success forcing that shot into Williams’ forehand, which was off from the start and only went more off from there. Williams ended the match, fittingly, by hammering one into the middle of the net.
Williams has played sporadically the last couple years yet still maintained that she can beat anyone when she’s playing well. Now we have the proof that this is not quite true. She won the Australian Open when Henin wasn’t there, then lost to her at the last three majors. Serena was not at her best last night—sluggish in the first set, ambushed in the second—but it’s apparent that, while she can still get up off the sidelines and beat 99 percent of the tour, she can't do it against Justine Henin.
Serena will have to admit this to herself if she wants to turn the tables on the Belgian. We’ll see if she’s willing at this stage of her career to do that and work to beat her next season. What are we to make of her comments last night that Henin made a bunch of “lucky” shots? My strategy with Serena in these situations is to ignore the quotes. For one, her pressers are a game by the media to get her to discredit her opponent (in the guise of getting her to say something nice about them). Second, the Williams sisters have never given the media what it wants (or pretends to want)—a contrite loser—and never will. It’s been a mental tactic of theirs from the beginning, to never doubt that they’re the best. It's worked, though, like I said, I think that attitude is hindering Serena when it comes to Henin right now. Lastly, it might be the most tired topic in tennis. Don’t sweat it.
I’ve always had a perverse liking for David Ferrer’s game. The Spanish baseliner is the opposite of flashy, but his consistency and the relatively quick pace at which he plays—go get ball, walk back to line, hit serve; this is how tennis should be—make for entertaining matches. I also like his walk: flat-footed, shoulders hunched, moving forward at all times without a second thought. The guy is the living definition of dogged. Ferrer will play anywhere, anytime, and you rarely have to worry about his effort. He’s been piling up wins this year, so it was nice last night to see him rewarded with a big one, over his countryman Rafael Nadal.
