US OPEN

August 28, 2006

Justine Henin

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Justine, please.

Q. Can you give us a brief history of what happened, when the injury occurred that has shortened your summer season in the United States?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: My knee injury, you mean? Yeah, no, it's a year and a half ago that my knee, my right knee is bothering me. It's been really bad this year in Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, I was feeling it. And I did push myself too hard probably at that time, so it got a little bit serious.

Then in the summer it was still bothering me a little bit. I wasn't feeling ready yet to play in Montreal, unfortunately. It was the best preparation for me to go in Montreal and get a few matches; I couldn't have it, so I had to change my plan which I don't like that much. But when you have to, you do it.

But now my knee is feeling fine. I just have to be careful. When it's painful, I just have to rest. It's probably ‑‑ it's not easy for me on hard court. It's a very difficult surface for this kind of injury, but I'm better now.

Q. No player likes to make excuses for a loss, but realistically, could this injury have had an impact on your surprisingly different performance in the final in Wimbledon?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Not at all. No, no, no, no. My knee was fine at the time. Now that I had time to think about that, I wasn't fresh enough. I had a lot of things to do, a lot of matches to play. French Open, Eastbourne, Wimbledon, no regrets about that because I just gave 200 percents. For sure you want to play your best tennis in a Grand Slam final, and I couldn't. I just had to accept it and say that's life.

The other one, she's there for the same thing as me. When she plays better, she deserves to win, that's it.

Q. Coming off of a good result in New Haven, how do you feel? Are you feeling physically and mentally where you want to be right now?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, I think it's been good for me that I had this chance to play a few matches in New Haven. The transition from New Haven to here wasn't very easy because I didn't hit a single ball here on US Open courts before my warm‑up during my match today. It was raining yesterday and this morning, and that's why we had a longer warm‑up, ten minutes warm‑up. I was a bit nervous about that because you just want some, yeah, time to get used to other conditions.

But I feel good. I think it's first year since 2003 I'm playing the four Grand Slams in the season. I'm very happy about that.

Q. And playing in four Grand Slams that you could theoretically, hopefully in your case, be in a final of.

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, it's still too far from now. What I did till now is amazing. It's maybe the best season of my career with 2003 I would say. I've been very consistent from the beginning of the season.

I'm not thinking too much about what could happen here. The only thing I know is that I enjoy my tennis so much. I'm pretty healthy. I'm qualified for the championship, which remains one of my goal in the season. We'll see. I will go step by step, and we'll see.

Q. Did you request a Tuesday or Wednesday start here?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I didn't request anything because in Grand Slam you don't have anything to say, and that's normal. They choose a part of the draw. You play on Monday. So I just heard after my final in New Haven that I was supposed to play today, so even if I wasn't very happy at that point, you know ‑‑ you have to accept it.

That's like this, when you take the risk to play a tournament before a Grand Slam you have to be ready to play on Monday. I wasn't very happy about the fact that I played first match, but now it's behind me, and I just want to look forward.

Q. You had mentioned this is your best season as far as you can tell so far. Any particular reasons for that?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I'm healthy, that's very important. That I can play not a lot of tournaments, but I can play consistently tournaments after tournaments. I think it's very important for your confidence when you're injured and you take some time to come back, that takes a lot of energy.

Yeah, I just ‑‑ I enjoy my tennis so much, much more than in the years before. I don't know why, but it's like I feel very lucky to do what I love so much. It's great that I can play a whole season. I hope I can keep going this like. Yeah, it's great the way it is for me this season. We will see.

Q. The four Grand Slams are obviously very unique. New York is an interesting setting. Your thoughts on this particular event? How does this rank of the four?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: Yeah, it's ‑‑ that's not my favorite one, I just have to agree. It's a bit of a mixed feeling about my results here because I won it once and then I lost fourth round almost every year.

It's last Grand Slam of the season. Everyone gets a little bit tired. It's pretty busy, I mean New York. Busy city. I think everyone is a bit tired during this tournament, but it's last in the season and everyone wants to play well. There is the race to the championships. I feel I think everyone is more under pressure than the other Grand Slams. That's the feeling I have. I don't know if the other players feel it that way.

But it's a different atmosphere: Night session and the New York crowd. It's different. I like it, but it's not my favorite one.

Q. What do you think of the WTA rule of on‑court coaching? Do you think we'll see it in the Grand Slams soon?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I don't know. I didn't use it last week in New Haven because I knew that this week I wouldn't have any coach with me on the court. For me, I think we working a lot with my coach about the fact that I'm alone on the court. I have to move forward. I have to find the solutions by myself.

If you see it another way, it's gonna make the woman's tennis more popular because I think people like to see the relationship between the coach and the player that looks interesting on TV and everything.

I don't see ‑‑ I don't know if we gonna have this rule in the future. I think that a lot of people thought that was great, but I cannot tell you because I didn't use it. If it becomes a rule everywhere, we'll see if I'm gonna try it. But now, for me, there is no way I can give feedback.

Q. Does it help you? Does it help to be coached during a match? Does it matter to you, because it's never been that way?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I didn't try it but, you know, I think I had great results without my coach with me on the court. I don't need him to be with me because I know what I'm doing well and what I'm doing wrong and what I have to do and what I have to improve. I just look at him and I understand what I have to do. So that's it for me.

Q. Any superstitions you have when you're playing?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: No, I'm not as superstitious as I was in the past. I was a few years ago. Now I'm doing much better. Not really like I was in the past.

Q. What were your superstitions in the past?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I don't know. For example, I started my tournament playing in white in New Haven, and then I changed for my semifinal and final I was in blue and black. I would never do that in the past. Just thinking there is nothing to do with it.

So it's better to see it that way. But it's normal. An athlete does kind of have routine in everything but doesn't have to go too far.

Q. Considering you didn't get to play on Saturday ‑‑ or much on Saturday ‑‑ and you said you didn't get a chance to hit a ball until this morning, were you happy with the way you played?

JUSTINE HENIN‑HARDENNE: I think it was a very strange situation for me, yeah. I didn't play a lot on Saturday, and then yesterday nothing, this morning nothing. It's not easy to arrive in a Grand Slam like this.

But I think I did deal pretty well with the situation, even if I was a bit tired at the beginning of the match. I wasn't moving that well. But game after game, especially in the second set, I was starting to feel better and I served well.

I've never been really under pressure, so I could control the match, and I'm happy to have this kind of match for a first round.

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