Ask most top female tennis players anything remotely personal and they are likely to steer the conversation towards their forehand or the latest handbag they have designed. But Justine Henin does not deal in handbags: she deals in real life. And what a complex and eventful life it has been.
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/ 12 January 2007
Pity the new Australian Open tournament director, Craig Tiley. With less than a week to go before the first Grand Slam of the year gets under way, Tiley had his first taste of the annual rush of injury scares and sick notes that threatens to undermine the tournament before a ball has been struck.
It is a disconcerting experience to find yourself in a room with Serena Williams. Watch her on a tennis court and, like her opponents, you can’t help but be in awe of her muscular, aggressive presence. Sit next to her, and you are suddenly reminded that she is a 22-year-old young woman, and a very girly one at that.
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/ 28 November 2003
Australia take on Spain in the Davis Cup final this weekend, at home, on grass, in a tennis contest they are expected to win comfortably. For those who bleed green and gold, only victory will do, but the terrible spectre of losing persisted in Melbourne Park this week despite the air of jollity on court.
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago the only thing the world knew about Kim Clijsters was that she went out with another up and coming player, Lleyton Hewitt, and that some shrewd judges thought she might one day be rather good. Two weeks after starting the French Open as this unheralded teenager she was still giving her all, against Jennifer Capriati in one of the longest and most competitive women’s grand slam finals ever seen.