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...but for the MAIN reason I came to the thread this morning - talk about a bomb dropped from out of nowhere, if there's any truth to this!! I'll be paying attention to this news conference slated for today.


Report: Henin to hang up racket, call it a career

Henin, who has been in a slump all spring, called a news conference, while local newspapers already carried headlines saying "Henin quits."

The 25-year-old Belgian has always said she sought a long career and despite injuries and a divorce, she had a sterling 2007 with two Grand Slam victories and eight other tour titles.

However, after winning her home tournament in Antwerp in February, she has been on one of her worst skids of her career and failed to go beyond a quarterfinal since.

This year she lost to Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Italy's Francesca Schiavone, and some were lopsided. Last week she was ousted from the Berlin Open in the third round and this week she pulled out of the Italian Open.

Her announcement could range from withdrawing for a limited amount of time, to retiring at the end of the season or quitting all tennis immediately.

"She finds it tough, losing matches she normally would not lose," Fed Cup captain Sabine Appelmans said. "But I don't think her career is over. She has to get through this and then end her career at the top of her game."

Only last year in May, Belgium's Kim Clijsters, a former No. 1 player, said farewell to competitive tennis. Clijsters has since married and become a mother.

Throughout her career, Henin has had to beat the odds.

She had to battled the giants in the game and with a superlative one-handed backhand, amazing speed and endless determination, she won seven Grand Slam titles and an Olympic title. The only major to escape her is Wimbledon.

She lost her mother to cancer when she was 12 and only reunited with her father and close family last year after almost a decade of separation. During that difficult youth, tennis gave her a sense of mission and it became all-encompassing.

At the outset of her productive 2007, she also divorced from Pierre-Yves Hardenne, a Belgian to whom she had been married for four years.

Henin said she had found a balance in her life between a sense of personal self-fulfillment and doggedly pursuing tennis titles.

At that time, though, her tennis started to unravel.


ETA: Henin's news conference is slated for 10AM Eastern time today.


ETA2: Yaaaaaaayy!! I can't make a new post, until this evening - when it passes 10:23PM. Praise the magicians.

She's GONE!! Officially!! I wouldn't be surprised to see her come back 2 or 3 years from now, though. Just... Wow!! The French is wide open, now!

No. 1 Justine Henin retires from tennis immediately

LIMELETTE, Belgium - Justine Henin retired from tennis Wednesday, an abrupt ending to a short and successful career in which she won seven Grand Slam singles titles and leaves while ranked No. 1.

The 25-year-old Belgian made the surprising announcement at a news conference Wednesday, less than two weeks before the start of the French Open. She has won that clay-court major championship four times, including each of the past three years.

"This is the end of a child's dream," Henin said. "This is a definitive decision. Those who know me know it is serious."

Henin... won't have any sort of farewell tour. She is quitting immediately.



From what I've read, she was composed during the press conference; it was her coach Carlos who was not so.

She actually has a look of contentment... perhaps relief... upon her face. Good for her!!

While it's certainly not impossible, I don't buy into the steroid premise. I think she's just basically burnt out.


Nadal and Djoko square off in the German semi's (Fed vs. Seppi in the other) tomorrow, with a BIG implication looming...

"Nadal and Djokovic will play for the No. 2 ranking. If Nadal loses, Djokovic would replace him. The Spaniard has been ranked second for a record 147 consecutive weeks."