Notes from a sporting week – 19/05/08

Sad goodbye for Henin:

There were few out there who could say that they were not surprised by Justine Henin’s decision to retire from professional tennis at the ripe old age of 25 whilst atop the women’s world rankings, but happen it has and one can only applaud her for making a massive decision when she was at the peak of her powers.

Having played tennis since the age of five and having turned professional aged 16 in 1999 her reasons for retiring are not to dissimilar to those expressed by her compatriot Kim Clijsters when she retired last year; wanting to get away from the daily grind of training and travelling to tournaments in various parts of the world and having more of a normal life.

What comes as more of a shock is her timing. Having won the last three French Open titles one could have imagined that she would have been champing at the bit to make it four in a row. She also had an Olympic gold medal to defend in Beijing later in the year, but even sticking it out for a few more months is not something she could stomach after a 2008 in which she has won two titles but suffered some bad reverses along the way, not least to Dinara Safina in the third round of the German Open recently.

Over the last five years Henin has been the dominant figure on the women’s tour, wining seven grand slam titles and 47 tournaments in all. She has been top of the women’s rankings 117 times and in 2007 became the first female tennis player to earn more than US$5 million. The French Open was her favourite tournament and having won it in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 she was expected to add a fifth this year. She was also champion at the US Open in 2003 and 2007 and the Australian in 2004. The only slam to escape her was Wimbledon, where she finished runner up in 2001 and 2006.

2007 was undoubtedly the best year that she has enjoyed. As well as the French and US Opens and the $5 million, she added another eight titles to become the first women in 10 years to win 10 titles in a season, including the end of season championship. There was also the reconciliation with her father and brother from whom she had become estranged following the death of her mother when she was aged 12. Also in 2007 she announced that she was splitting from her husband and ex-coach Pierre-Yves Hardenne, though in both cases kept the reasons for them to herself.

Indeed there has been many this week speculating that with those chapters of her life closed she lacked the drive and desire to prove herself that had driven her to the heights she reached. The immediate and sudden announcement gives credence to this theory and the statement on her personal website talks of her having a bitter taste in her mouth were she to carry on until the season’s end.

Whatever the reasons the truth is that women’s tennis has lost one of its undoubted superstars, its best player in fact. Sure they still have the showbiz potential of Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters, but she was a breath of fresh in the sport. Henin was not afraid to speak her mind and like Martina Hingis before her wasn’t worried about ruffling a few feathers with her comments in contrast to the usual self-centred banalities that most players come out with.

There has been the obvious talk of burnout and a comparison can be made to Hingis’ retirement after she was unable to compete with the power game of Sharapova, the Williams and Aurelie Mauresmo. The difference with Henin is that she could handle the power game and often overcame if. That she could is nothing short of miraculous considering her slight 5 feet 5 inch frame, especially in comparison to the aforementioned 6 feet tall Amazonian quartet. As well as having a deadly accurate forehand and backhand, she worked phenomenally hard on her serve and the fact that she reached two Wimbledon finals shows just how well she could negate the powerful serve and volley game.

There could be the worry that we may not see her like again, that we are far more likely to see more of the power hitters athletes who can adapt their game from the hard courts that dominate the season to the few weeks in which they have to venture onto clay or grass. Thankfully this week at the Rome Masters French women Alize Cornet reached the final where she lost in straight sets to defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Like Henin the Nice native is diminutive in stature, but has a delicate touch and good movement around the court. At 17 years of age she provides the hope that women’s tennis may have some variety in years to come. Should she reach the heights that Henin has reached though, it should be hoped that she doesn’t feel the need to turn her back on the sport when at the peak of her powers.

CAS makes common sense decision:

It has been a long road for Oscar Pistorius, the ‘blade runner’, but finally the South African Paralympic runner has got his wish of competing in able-bodied competitions, including of course this summers Olympic Games in Beijing.

Having been turned down by the International Association of Athletics Federations, Pistorius, the 2004 Paralympic gold medallist took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland and this Friday they confirmed that he can run alongside able-bodied runners, so long as it is on the prosthetic limbs, or cheetah blades as they are known, that he has been using thus far.

Originally the IAAF refused Pistorius his request, believing that the blades gave him an unfair advantage. What advantage existed was not obvious when he ran in a number of meetings in 2007 and finished well outside the top three. However, the man himself always argued that there was no advantage and he was able to prove it to the CAS.

Of course if technological developments mean that he starts using a new pair then they too will have to undergo a rigorous testing procedure before he can use them in non-paralympic competition and CAS was at pains to make clear that the ruling applied only to Pistorius and his cheetah blades. For now though all parties are happy, with IAAF President Lamine Diack welcoming him with open arms and wishing him well.

However, it is still highly unlikely that Pistorius will make it to Beijing for the Olympics. The ‘A’ qualifying time is 45.55 seconds, with a ‘B’ qualifying time of 45.95, which allows a country to enter one athlete if none has finished in the ‘A’ time. Currently his personal best for the 400m is 46.46, with a 2007 best of 46.56, though he did finish second in last year’s able-bodied 400m at the South African championships.

For now though that doesn’t matter, though the man himself believes that the ruling will spur him onto to better times. What is important is that he has been given the chance, whilst the IAAF can be satisfied with their stance because any rush to allow him would have opened a can of worms and left them open to accusations of tokenism. Moreover at a time when athletics is being kicked from pillar to post with stories of drug taking, Pistorius’ good news story provides a refreshing change.
JI 19/05/08