BRUSSELS: Justine Henin will return to competitive tennis next year.
The former top-ranked player made the announcement Tuesday, barely a week after fellow-Belgian Kim Clijsters capped her comeback from retirement by winning the US Open. Henin retired just over a year ago. But at 27, she says she’s ready to compete for an eighth Grand Slam title.
Henin made the announcement live on Belgian TV. A series of injuries had helped force her retirement, but she admitted Tuesday that she missed the game too much.
Henin plans to play exhibition tournaments in Charleroi, Belgium, and Dubai to hone her skills ahead of a return to the WTA tour in 2010. Henin’s announcement of her comeback followed media speculations about her return to professional tennis.
La Derniere Heure wrote that Henin had been in training for three months and that she had reformed her coaching and fitness teams.
The paper pointed out that to meet anti-doping rules, any player who planned to return to tennis needed to inform the authorities at least three months beforehand.
Le Libre Belgique sounded sure that Henin would end her retirement and already salivated over the prospect of her and Clijsters once again joining forces to play for Belgium in the Fed Cup competition. Le Soir was more cautious saying only that “Justine Henin will break her silence” and could “possibly confirm the rumours of her return that have been circulating for the past three months in newspapers and on the internet.” “Will Justine follow the same road as her eternal rival Kim Clijsters?” the paper asked. Born in the city of Liege in the French-speaking part of Belgium, Henin burst onto the international scene in 2001 with three WTA tour victories. Small in stature but gifted with a fabulous one-handed backhand, a great all-round game and a tough mentality, she went on to win seven Grand Slam titles in the next seven years - four French Opens, two US Opens and one Australian Open - as well as two WTA Tour Championships.
She won a total of 41 WTA Tour titles and held the world No.1 spot for 117 non-consecutive weeks, a position she had when she retired on May 14, 2008 citing a succession of injuries and a desire to live a life away from tennis.
