Justine Henin could have been forgiven for giving this year’s French Open a miss following the dramas that shattered her private life.
Instead, the world number one says she is more determined than ever to succeed at her favourite tournament and become the first woman since Monica Seles (1990-92) to win the title three times in a row.
Henin’s life was turned inside out at the start of the year when she announced that her marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne was on the rocks after four years together.
The Belgian promptly withdrew from the Australian Open and went into seclusion to recover from her heartbreak.
Since then and against all the odds, she has battled back as strong as ever, winning tournaments in Warsaw, Doha and Dubai and clamping a lock on the world number one position ahead of Maria Sharapova.
Having won three of the last four French Opens, she will start a strong favourite to make it four out of five.
”The verdict on the first half of my season has been super-positive,” Henin told a press conference in Belgium on Tuesday.
”It wasn’t at all easy to get back into the swing of things after the events that have so rocked me.
”I carefully chose just when I would return to action and since then, it’s true, I have had some great wins and am back on top of the world rankings.
”But above all else, what excites me is that I am getting great pleasure out of playing once again.”
Henin also said that she had taken steps to restore normal relations with her father and close family from whom she became estranged shortly after bursting on to the international stage as a teenager.
If the emotional scars are slowly healing there remains the physical strains that regularly take a toll on the slightly built player who needs always to punch way above her weight against the juggernauts that dominate the modern game.
The lights are all at green on that front, she says.
”I feel stronger than six months ago. Physically I am in great shape,” she said.
”The breathing problems I had at Miami are behind me and I will have no problem going the distance.”
Asked who she feared most in Paris, Henin cited the woman she defeated in last year’s final, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, and the volatile Serb Jelena Jankovic.
The two East Europeans have been omnipresent on the WTA tour in recent weeks, wracking up vital hours of work on the clay and it has shown in their performances with Jankovic winning the Italian Open in Rome last week and Kuznetsova defeating Henin to reach the German Open final the previous week.
The same cannot be said, though, for the sport’s glamour girl, Maria Sharapova, who has only just returned to action in Istanbul after taking two months out to recover from a shoulder injury.
That will hardly get her match fit for Paris and in any case she is far from happy on the slow Paris clay where she has failed to get past the quarterfinals.
The biggest question marks surround the two ”veterans”, Serena Williams of the United States and home heroine Amelie Mauresmo.
Serena has not played in Paris since 2004, two years after her first and only win in the year’s second Grand Slam event.
But after injuries and lack of motivation last year saw her slump down the rankings, she has rebounded in typical swashbuckling style, winning the Australian Open in January and defeating all of her top rivals at one time or another.
In her last outing she lost in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open to Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, but insisted she was fully confident going into Roland Garros.
”I feel like I’ll really enjoy myself there, and obviously I have nothing to lose,” she said.
”I’m going to do well, and I think once I start believing that, it will happen.”
The problem for Mauresmo is twofold, at once physical and psychological.
The Wimbledon champion has made a poor return to action after spending two months out to recover from appendicitis and will arrive in her hometown badly short of match play.
And then there is her history of choking on the Philippe Chatrier centre-court where her long-suffering French fans are never sure what to expect from her. — Sapa-AFP