L
Should Henin retire? ... Well she did.
- Thread starter grimmbomb21
- Start date
edmondsm
Legend
But so many players just stop playing and take a break. There is no need to officially retire, if you're feeling burned out, un-motivated, in a slump, just take a break. Especially when she was gearing up to defend her FO title just weeks ago, now she's retired. It seems very rash, and a little suspicious if you ask me.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Hmmm....maybe she's jealous of the life that her friend Kim Clijsters has now and wants some of the same for herself, e.g., family, motherhood, etc.?
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HyperHorse
Banned
Yes.. Justine has retired... Get over it!!!
Blah blah blah blah Henin is gone...
Blah blah blah blah.. pretty much 7 pages of the same thing.
I can't believe how selfish you all are...
With her physique must take a lot of work just to prepare to play at this high level...
Anyway she's decided she's had enough, it's clear none of you what the life of a pro tennis player is really about, all you care about is your own entertainment.
It's her life, she's had a great career anyhow.
Hopefully some teenage girls are out there perfecting their 1 handers...
Blah blah blah blah Henin is gone...
Blah blah blah blah.. pretty much 7 pages of the same thing.
I can't believe how selfish you all are...
With her physique must take a lot of work just to prepare to play at this high level...
Anyway she's decided she's had enough, it's clear none of you what the life of a pro tennis player is really about, all you care about is your own entertainment.
It's her life, she's had a great career anyhow.
Hopefully some teenage girls are out there perfecting their 1 handers...
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Yeah, sure, that was the reason. And Borg retired abruptly at a young age because he couldn't compete with skinny guys with 1-handed backhands, right? :roll:
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Yeah, and that's why she's still #1 in the world and has been for some time. :roll:
edmondsm
Legend
You're ridiculous. She's been pwning people with 2hbh's for years.
snoopy
Professional
She probably wants to get married.
She has gone through enough trouble in her life including her family and her divorce.
Her knee bothers her and she has accomplished enough already. There is nothing left for her to do (except maybe win Wimbledon).
Without her the WTA is now totally lame.
She has gone through enough trouble in her life including her family and her divorce.
Her knee bothers her and she has accomplished enough already. There is nothing left for her to do (except maybe win Wimbledon).
Without her the WTA is now totally lame.
So did Federer, but not recently.
Ultra2HolyGrail
Hall of Fame
Kaptain Karl
Hall Of Fame
Hmm. "Class" is not a trait I'd ever label Henin with.
Sure you can. I've played matches with the Flu so bad I wanted to die ... and based on the scores, I did. But I played because I owed my opponent the best match I could give him. (I've also won matches when I had the Flu.)
Henin had a tummy ache and lacked the class to finish the match and give Mauresmo the honor of a completed match for her Major victory. Please don't try to excuse her classless behavior.
She did a pretty good job of cheapening her memory ... all by herself.
- KK
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
So both Henin's and Federer's opponents' 2HBH's all all of a sudden got much better from last year to this year? Yeah, right. Get real. :-?
AlpineCadet
Hall of Fame
Here are some snippets from the article:
"It is a new beginning for me. I feel like I already lived three lives. I gave the sport all I could and took everything it could give me," she said. "I take this decision without the least bit of regrets. It is my life as a woman that starts now."
"I thought long about this," Henin said, her voice cracking and eyes watering. "I started thinking about it late last year. I was at the end of the road. I leave with my head held high."
"She was a great opponent. She always challenged herself to play her best tennis no matter what the circumstances," Venus Williams, a six-time major champion, said Wednesday at the Italian Open. "She was just a real fighter, so I think that was really what made her best."
"At the end of the match in Berlin, (retirement) all of a sudden was there as something evident," Henin said. "I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it."
"Justine Henin will be remembered as one of the all-time great champions in women's tennis, and a woman who made up for her lack of size with a will to win and fighting spirit that was second to none," WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott said. "It is rare that an athlete leaves at the very top of her game in this day and age, but Justine has always played by her own rules, in the very best sense of those words."
ATXtennisaddict
Hall of Fame
what's the difference between retiring from a match and giving it away because you are not feeling well? either way you're not giving your opponent that "best" match you could give them.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Henin was the only WTA player that I could stand watching. In fact, I loved to watch her all-court game, and of course, her incredible 1HBH.
The rest of the WTA players don't even play anything resembling tennis anymore. It's more of a scream-fest and they play as if they're trying to chop down trees.
The rest of the WTA players don't even play anything resembling tennis anymore. It's more of a scream-fest and they play as if they're trying to chop down trees.
snoopy
Professional
Enlightened Coelacanth
Rookie
If Henin turned her ankle in a match and stood out there racquet in hand, unable to move, would that somehow be more satisfying
to the winner? I doubt it. It would be more of a mockery to me. If you just can't play say so and get off the court. You get no points for merely being there and taking part in a farce.
I don't know about the extent of her ailment that day and neither do you. So when you choose to remember that alone and exclude all the other times she fought her heart out you cheapen the totality of her career.
But it's a free country. You are at liberty to hate her, if it makes you feel better about your decision.
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Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
Guess that explains it. Just like Graf & Clijsters. There are more important things than tennis even to the very best at it.
Anyone know what was Graf ranked when she suddenly retired right before the '99 USO? And didn't she ask the WTA to just remove her from the rankings, rather that let her slowly drop off them over the next year?
I wonder if Henin has done that as well. If she did that, I would think that shows how serious she is about this decision. Any statement from the WTA about the rankings now?
Neither did Graf(at least publicly) at the time of her retirement. Then she mysteriously showed up at the USO to watch Andre play & the rest is history...
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Maybe their 1 handed backhands got worse as they could not get the precise timing in their old age
tennisplayer1981
Rookie
First Favre, then Annika, now Henin. WHAT GIVES?!?!?!
Nadal_Monfils
Semi-Pro
^^^ She also pulled that sunt against Serena when she held up her hand and then refused to acknowledge that she did hold it up to the umpire.
But Annika won all 4 women's golf majors, but Justine never won Wimbledon. Like Federer might retire without winning all majors, unlike Agassi, the two-handed backhand player.
daddy
Legend
May be so. But still it is my logic and although I can accept your way of thinking I still do not see how could her training make her so bulk like she used to be - if anything more classic tennis training would make you slimer. Id take a good look at some vids from 5 years ago and now before dismissing anything.
Btw - not the same coaching team. Her fitness coach was in question.
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Who can really know how horrid it was for her at the time? Many people have had stomach pain so horrid it's paralysing, and it can come in waves and feel better a short time later.
When you were playing your opponent, did you have 15000 people in the stands and 50 million watching on TV, and an expectation that you'd make less than 1 UE a game, not to mention stunning regular winners?
How much of a farce did you and everyone watching really want it to descend into? If she has to start drop-serving like the 4 year olds that I coach, would that have somehow been preferable to retiring?
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Leelord337
Hall of Fame
she said in tennis magazine that she will only play if she has the same coach and she won't play without him.
tennispro11
Hall of Fame
What a sad day for women's tennis. One of the most well-rounded and fun to watch players is leaving. One more reason not to watch women's tennis.
T
T
Fee
Legend
Have you ever been on a trip, say for two weeks, and been so relieved to get back to your own house, your own bed, your own kitchen? Wasn't it great to unpack your bags and not be in a hotel or eating in a restaurant? Have you ever been to a tournament for a week and been completely disoriented when you got back home?
It's the travel that leads to early burnout for some of these players. Some fo them never really get used to being on the road for 40 or more weeks per year. It seems so glamourous to tennis fans - travel the world, see foreign lands, etc, etc, etc, but think about the last trip you took and multiply it out. 40 weeks of airports, hotels, restaurants, foreign foods, jetlag, disrupted sleep, climate changes, someone else doing your laundry (if you're lucky), language changes, meeting 100 new people each week. Throw in the occasional lost luggage... Even for players at the top of the game like Justine, it can be tough being in a completely new place every 7 days.
There was probably some amount of pressure on her as well. To be the best of the best, and to have every loss questioned in global media. Perhaps some of our Belgian posters can tell us about the spotlight on her in her home country, if she was treated as the equivalent of Tiger Woods or someone like that. For some people, there just comes a time when it's not just about the tennis, it's about everything else that comes with it.
The tennis is another matter. She's been playing forever and she has worked very hard physically with Etcheberry to attain peak physical fitness (and the high rate of burn out amongst his clients is curious to me, but probably the subject of a seperate thread). There are a lot of players on this forum who play 4 times a week, but what would it be like to play 7 days a week, to practice and then get focused to play matches week after week after week, in front of a crowd. Yes, its all part of tennis and every professional player knows this when they sign on, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on them all over time. Some players live for that, even thrive on it, but some of these players merely accept it and perhaps squelch their resistance to it so that they can play the game they love. I don't know what type of player Justine is, but I believe there is a possibility that her career took a great toll on her emotionally, especially considering the turmoil in her off-court personal life.
It's tough to see this in someone so young and talented, but it is the reality.
Mick
Legend
Batoussai
Rookie
Let's stop remembering all the bad things. She doesn't deserve that. She's one of the few true champions at heart of the WTA.
verdasco67
Professional
i think i just puked in a little in my mouth. who let the boogie man out!
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Sure, that's why my 1HBH is better now than it was 25 years ago. :-?
I guess that's why Borg retired in his "old age" because he was no longer fast enough to get to the ball earlier with his 2HBH as 2HBH's have less reach.
miniRafa386
Hall of Fame
she announced on her website she retired. she lost to safina less than a week ago. shes just being a sore loser if you ask me.
willgonase10
Banned
How about lets not FORGET.
Henin is a sore loser/cheater. A combination. Her all-court game basically consists of this:
Forehand, Backhand, Serve, Volley, Hand Raises, Tummy Aches, and lets not forget herpes.
willgonase10
Banned
Oh,
For those exusing her tummy ache...Why the hell would you retire in a final OF A GRANDSLAM?!?!
Take a **** and get over it.
For those exusing her tummy ache...Why the hell would you retire in a final OF A GRANDSLAM?!?!
Take a **** and get over it.
S
swimntennis
Guest
I'm shocked. I think that's all I can say right now.
tennisplayer1981
Rookie
Yeah but Favre never won the Super Bowl.
Kaptain Karl
Hall Of Fame
Wrong. I prefer the old Aussie way. I'll paraphrase it this way, "If you're on the court, you are fine. You play the best you are able. And you don't make excuses if your best isn't enough."
I have three principles I expect my HS boys to follow in practices, in drills and in matches:
1 - Do your best
2 - Honor the game
3 - Finish strong
Henin has always bugged me because of how frequently she demonstrated she didn't have the same standards my HS boys have.
You are asking me to "rule" on a hypothetical. No thanks.
What I saw was a Major Final where -- for whatever reason -- Henin wasn't able to sustain play at the same level as Mauresmo. (But contrary to how so many Henin-philes would make it seem, she was able to play ... hit occasional winners ... and cover the court with her superior footwork.) She dishonored the game, Mauresmo and herself by quitting.
Nice try. I also remember the *many* times she received illegal coaching in her matches. (Don't even try to defend that.) In addition I remember The Hand ... and her pretended innocence in that event. Then, days later, her "excuse" for not admitting she had held up her hand was, "The Umpire didn't ask me."
EC, cheating one time earns you the label "Cheater". She earned it with her own behavior. I didn't "invent" these actions of hers....
Wow! You're good!!! (Not!)
I never posted that I "hate" Justine Henin. I don't "hate" her. I love the way she hits the ball. I love her footwork. But because she is a cheater and dishonors the game, I'd never vote for her in the Hall Of Fame. (As if I had a vote.)
See above. You are giving your own "diagnosis" the benefit of the doubt. I'll stick with mine, thanks.
What does this have to do with her infamous departure?
Now you are inventing conditions which didn't even exist.
How much more of a farce could it have been? (Really?) Without your exaggerated hypotheticals.
I remember a match one of your OZ Greats played -- in the mid-'70s I think -- where Newk played many games on a badly sprained ankle in the Quarters or Semis. Then, when he was serving for Match Point, he retired. A reporter ask him why he didn't try to even serve an ace and win the match, which would have gotten him into the next round (and a bigger payday). Newk's response was something like, "Now, how would that have been for the fans? To come to a late round match only to learn I had to default because of my ankle?"
I remember the reporter looking pretty sheepish after that reply.
Now *that's* an example of a player who honors the game and demonstrates class....
- KK
MIGHTY MANFRED THE WONDER
Semi-Pro
I hear she is actually a fashion designer/actress/ recent Jr college graduate
and is now getting all her apperances scheduled by an old photographer who sticks his glasses in his mouth by the ear piece.
and is now getting all her apperances scheduled by an old photographer who sticks his glasses in his mouth by the ear piece.
THUNDERVOLLEY
G.O.A.T.
So silly when some still try to defend Henin's cowardly "sick" act against Mauresmo; they actually find excuses for it!
I recall Sampras' memorable U.S. Open vomit-on-court incident...but he played on...unlike Henin.
I recall Sampras' memorable U.S. Open vomit-on-court incident...but he played on...unlike Henin.
Greenfin Beta
Semi-Pro
there ought to be law against it... players should not be allowed to retire while on top of the game.
1
1970CRBase
Guest
bet she's just bored with handling the screaming blustering bragging twofisting bashers. who needs it? after forcing out Hingis on trumped up charges, women's tennis has just lost it's last and only decent player.
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