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WIMBLEDON

June 27, 2006

Justine Henin

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English for Justine Henin.

Q. There are a great number of players who are out there in the top 20 who are successful even though there may be a glitch in one or two of their strokes. Very few players out there like you and Martina Hingis whose technique is almost flawless in everything you do. Why aren't there more players like the two of you?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to explain. But just a few players play this game. It's good to have different kind of games. I think people would love to see more of these kind of players on the tour, but women's tennis is getting very powerful in the last few years, so that's the way it is.
But we prove, Martina and me, that we can play another game and still win. That's a pretty good sign. It means that the power, it's one thing, but it's not everything in the game, especially on grass.
Martina, she's a very good player on grass, and she proved it not in the last few years, but before that, that she could win here. That means it's pretty good.

Q. Yet if you were a coach, and you looked at the results of these two players, Henin-Hardenne and Hingis, you would say that that was the type of player you would try to build. Why don't they?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I would be a very bad coach, I promise you. So, no, it's good. I'm pretty proud about the way I'm playing. It's different. I think that's why people like to watch my game. So it's another kind of personality, but it's good to have a little bit of everything on the tour. That's what we have. That makes the game more exciting. It's good.

Q. That was a faultless performance, wasn't it? There can't be any aspect that you can be unhappy with today.
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, it was pretty good. I played a couple of matches last week and arrived here on Saturday night. I was a bit tired from my last two matches in Eastbourne. The rain yesterday helped me a little bit. I was feeling better today.
Yeah, I played well, very consistent, pretty aggressive. I went forward. That's the kind of match you need in your first rounds.

Q. Do you think this will be your best chance of going all the way, the way you're playing at the moment?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Right now I won my first match. My second round is my main goal. I know how hard it is to go to the end of a Grand Slam. You have to build it day after day. That's it. You don't have to look too far. It will be a big mistake.
So now it's next step. It's my second round. I don't know, tomorrow or on Thursday. That's the main thing.

Q. Can you tell us what you like about Wimbledon? The French Open means so much to you.
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, it's a different atmosphere. I like it a lot. I mean, the site is beautiful. It's the most beautiful site of the four Grand Slams, I think. Yeah, it's all about traditions and everything. I really like it.
I think it's different. All the players love to come here. Even if grass is something very specific, you need some time to get used to it, but people like it a lot.

Q. It's a very different atmosphere away from the courts. The village atmosphere compared to New York.
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It's the first time this year I stay in the village. I was usually staying in the city, so that's different. That's good. Yesterday with the rain I could go back home. That's very good. I have a feeling all the players are more relaxed here than in the other Grand Slams. That makes it more special.

Q. Why did you decide to change from central London?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I don't know. I wanted to try something else. We have a lot of rain here. Everyone knows it. It's not good to spend my all day long here. The traffic and everything to go back in the city. I think it's a very good thing for me.

Q. Was it unfair of Wimbledon to ask you to play on Monday after only one day's rest after winning a week-long tournament?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, no, no. I mean, you know when you play the week before a Grand Slam, you know you can play on Monday. It's not about your results of the last week. The bottom half was playing on Monday. It was pretty normal.
When you decide to play the week before a Grand Slam, it's always the same problem. You have to deal with it. You don't have any choice.
It's pretty normal. It would be very complicated for the tournament, for the tour, to do some exceptions. It wouldn't be fair, I think.

Q. The way it turned out, you got the day rest anyway.
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I think I got it. That was pretty good because I was still a bit tired yesterday, could get a little bit of rest. That was very good for me.

Q. You seem lighter than you used to be, perhaps quicker. You don't seem to be having the problems with stamina that you might once have. Is that related to doing less weights or alteration in training?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I work a bit differently. It's true that I'm lighter than in the past. I'm still working pretty hard, but in another way. I work a lot on my endurance, a lot on my stretching. That's why I'm getting more flexible. On the weights, we are doing something different. I still work on my power, and I'm still as quick as I was before. I do a lot of foot drills, these kind of things.
We change a little bit the way to think about my preparation. That is going well, even if in the past I got many good results, too. The most important thing is that I stay healthy. When I'm healthy, I can play and I have good results, so that's pretty good.

Q. Were the weights related to the virus, do you think?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, I don't think so. Just about the work.

Q. Did you go through a period in your career where you thought you were just going to bulk up and become muscular, that would make you a better player, and discovered that really wasn't the way to become better?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: You know, at one point in my career, I had to work this way because I wasn't powerful at all. I mean, not enough to compete against the players like - we all know them - Davenport, Sharapova, the powerful players. In 2003 I had to work very hard to come at their level.
Then I understood I had many other qualities in my game to win against them, so I decided to change a little bit the way I was having my preparation. But it hasn't been the opposite. I mean, I think we still working hard. I still work a lot on my recovery. The main important thing is to keep the injuries away.
Right now I'm not afraid, scared any more about the power of the other players 'cause I know that I can be really powerful myself.

Q. Have you found you can get just as much power as you need simply by hitting the ball cleanly?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It's a question of timing. It's also a question of technique. On my serve especially, I can serve pretty hard. Now my percentage is getting higher, and that's very good. So that means that I don't have to be so tall and as strong as the other players. It's a question of how you hit the ball.

Q. Do you feel this year could be a very strong tournament in the women's draw? There's a lot of good players in good form.
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, it's wide open. I mean, that's very exciting on the tour. I mean, this last -- I would say last year and now first six months. It's very hard to say this player is dominating the tour and she is really the favorite for this tournament. Four different winners last year in the Grand Slam. Already two this year. That means that it's very exciting, very interesting, because you have a lot of concurrence. Right now it's very hard to say this player is going to be the player to beat in this tournament. So that's good for everyone.

Q. Do you have a sense of what history could mean for you personally, as you think about the possibility of winning all four Slams? Only seven other women have done that since World War II. They've been all great players. In your mind, do you think about your place in history, what it would mean if you could win this tournament?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I would love to. I would love to take a place in the history. But I don't think right now I realize what it would mean for the history of tennis. I mean, I can dream about that for sure, but I prefer to stay very focused on what I have to do every day and how hard I have to work. A Grand Slam is very long. I know I have possibilities now in the future to win this tournament, but it's still too early to talk about that.
I have to keep my routine and do my work every day, and maybe one day it's going to happen, that we change a lot of things. But I'm very happy. I enjoy my game. If it has to happen, it will happen. But I just want to enjoy my game, play the best I can, then we will see.

Q. Do you know much about your second-round opponents?
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Not a lot. I just played Nakamura in Indian Wells, I think, a few months ago. No, let's wait and see who's going to win that match. I'm sure that we're going to prepare the best we can with my coach. I don't know if it's going to be tomorrow or on Thursday. We'll see.

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