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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2008

Justine Henin

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Was that second set a wakeup call?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, I played a good first set, actually. I was well into the match and played very aggressive and I did a good job in the first.
And yeah, then lost a little bit of the intensity, a little bit of the rhythm on my serve. Then I was leading 5-2 and then she came back and didn't move her -- it wasn't good enough at that time to finish the match.
And then when she came back at 5-All I understood it was time to push myself a little bit more. And I know in the next round it's going to be a good match for me to push myself and really come to another level.

Q. Is it always a problem, motivation a problem in your game?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, it's never really been a problem in the past. I'm not a big fan of the first rounds in the Grand Slam, but you must win them. Today I can complete the match a little bit earlier, and I didn't. And, yeah, I just tried to stay focus on the main goals, important things, get ready for the next match.

Q. What do you make of the incident last night with the Capsicum spray and the police?
JUSTINE HENIN: I didn't see what happened. I heard that this morning, but I didn't see what happened.

Q. So it doesn't dent your view of the tournament?
JUSTINE HENIN: Oh, not really, no. No, not at all.

Q. Larry Scott talked the other day a little bit about provisional suspensions with doping, so between the first sample and the second sample, instead of waiting until the B sample comes back instead of announcing provisional suspensions earlier. I'm wondering if you feel like the way the doping protocol is set it takes too long between when a player tests and they're notified?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, I didn't hear about that, but it's true that it's long. It would be better for everyone if it could go faster, but I don't know the procedure and how it's working. So I'm not an expert like to talk about that and to really give my opinion of -- I don't know how long it could take, and I think that, yeah, I don't have any real comment to do about that.

Q. For instance, if Martina Hingis, she tested in July and she found out in September it came out. It's a long time.
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, it's long, but what can we say? I don't know how it's working, so you better ask the authorities. I'm not an expert on that.

Q. Do you feel a player should be suspended before their side's been heard?
JUSTINE HENIN: I think as soon as you are tested positive you should be suspended at that time.

Q. We all know that Wimbledon is very important to you, but could you talk about the significance of this Slam for you, given the fact you were gone last year and the year before you had to retire?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, it's a Grand Slam that I really like, but all Grand Slams are important to me. Maybe Wimbledon little bit more because it's the only one I never won, but I'd love to win every Grand Slam two times, so, hey, it means a lot to me.
I hope I can have great results here and in the future, this year and in the next years, but Wimbledon remains the one that all the attention is going to be on myself because it's the only one I never won.
And here, I really love being here and I think it's a great atmosphere, so I really, really like it a lot.

Q. How much did you watch last year, if any, of this tournament?
JUSTINE HENIN: Nothing.

Q. Nothing?
JUSTINE HENIN: No. Maybe a few games of a men's match, but, no, nothing. My mind was somewhere else.

Q. Was it deliberate? Did you feel you would miss it too much if you watched?
JUSTINE HENIN: Not really. Maybe a year later, now that it's seems so far away from me, I can say I missed the tournament. But I can tell you in January a year ago I really didn't miss my tennis at that time because there were more important issues in my life.
So it's just a question of priorities and how you feel at that moment, so I didn't want to watch because tennis wasn't important anymore for me at the time.

End of FastScripts

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