Justine Henin-Hardenne is the most successful Belgian tennis player of all time and is was the world number one female player (WTA ranking) when she announced her retirement on 14th May 2008.
The Belgian burst into the Grand Slam limelight in 2001, reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garros and then capping that by making the final at Wimbledon. There she came up against Venus Williams who was simply too strong for her although Henin did take the American to three sets.
Henin kept her form in 2002, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and reaching three finals on the WTA Tour - at the Gold Coast, Antwerp and Amelia Island events. In May 2002 she clinched her first major title - beating Serena Williams in the final in Berlin - before going down to a surprising first round loss at the French Open. She lost in the 2002 Wimbledon semi-final against Venus Williams, having beaten Monica Selles.
Henin's waif-like appearance belies an iron will and a surprisingly powerful array of shots - including what is probably the most stylish backhand in the women's game.
She was born on 1 June 1982. Justine took her first tennis lessons when she was only five. Her first coach, Luc Bodart, immediately saw that she would be a great player and after only 5 weeks he started giving her private lessons, because Justine out-classed the others. Her speed, the way she followed the ball with her eyes, her backhand: she was just phenomenal. In addition to a good technique, Justine was ambitious. Other kids would sigh if they had to do the same exercise twice, Justine would not. When she was only ten, she won in Namur in her peer group. In 1994, she won the Belgian Junior Championships. In between these, she had started working with her current coach: Carlos Rodriguez.
Justine received a severe emotional blow in 1995 when her mother Françoise died of cancer. Some people say that her mother’s death is something Justine takes mental courage from. Justine has always showed plenty of will power. She won the Orange bowl 14s and the European Championships both in singles and doubles in 1996. In 1997 she won the French Open for Juniors (she was the first Belgian to achieve this since 1947!) and she was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon and at the US Open for Juniors.
In 1997, she became the youngest Belgian Champion ever, beating Dominique van Roost-Monami in the finals when she was just 15 years old and she received the 40-15 award for being the most popular Belgian tennis player. Her debut on the WTA-tour proved to be a huge success as well. She won the first tournament she ever participated in (Antwerp). Only 4 other women had done that before her.
In the year 2000 she suffered some injuries and she broke off relations with her father José. She won the first 2 tournaments of the year 2001 (Canberra and Gold Coast) and managed to reach the 4th round at Melbourne Park. She then proceeded to reach the semifinals in Paris (Roland Garros) losing to Kim Clijsters, won the grass tournament of ’s Hertogenbosch (a.k.a. Rosmalen) and reached the finals at Wimbledon.
She was honoured, together with Kim Clijsters, by the Belgian king Albert II and Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt. John McEnroe said after seeing her play against Capriati in the semi’s at Wimbledon in 2002: "Justine has the best backhand in the world". Venus Williams said, after losing to Justine in Berlin in 2002: "She’s got everything it takes to become the world’s number one".