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ROGERS CUPAugust 15, 2015Justine HeninTORONTO, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: So we have Justine Henin with us. Tonight after the first match of the evening session, Justine will be inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame. She is a two‑time Rogers Cup champion, and we are thrilled she's with us here today. So we will open it up to questions. We will start with questions in English and follow with questions in French. Q. Hello, Justine. How does it feel to be back in Toronto where you won this tournament twice, and how you view it as a city overall towards you? JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah. I feel very jet lagged today. I just flew up yesterday. It's a great feeling. Toronto, it's a lot of good memories‑‑ Canada is a lot of good memories actually, and when I was flying yesterday I was thinking, wow, it's eight years ago already; and time goes very fast, I realize. But yeah, it's just strange to be in the media room of a tournament. I forgot how it was. Life has changed a lot. But no, I feel very honored by the induction in the Hall of Fame. I won Toronto two times. Like I said, Canada is something very special. It's first time I came in Canada, I think I was eight or nine years old. I have family in Montreal. My godfather lives there for 30 years, and my cousins, and I came back last year for three weeks of holidays. And yeah, the Canadian crowd knows about tennis, and I like coach so being back only for the weekend is great feel. Toronto has changed a lot, what I could see, the city. It's getting bigger and bigger. But now I feel very proud and very honored. Q. And you mentioned about being in the media room now. Like how does it feel being on the other side now and doing like work at the French Open and the adjustment and that process works for you? JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah. It's a great experience. It's something that I did a few years ago when I retired, and this year I did it at the French and in Wimbledon. It's different. It's less pressure. Everyone is talking how you're nervous, but I was much more nervous when I was on the court. But looking, you know, the distance, and looking‑‑ watching the matches and try to talk about what I see of the game, of the circuit, and differently than in the past, of course, because I took a lot of distance with tennis in the past few years. I still have my academy in Belgium. I really keep one foot in tennis, but the rest of the time I have a family now; I have a little girl, and I do different kind of things. But when I come back into the tournaments, it's great to be in it with this distance I took in the last few years. Q. And does your little child see like her mom from past matches, and does she think about playing tennis herself or does she say mommy's cool? JUSTINE HENIN: She understood that mom and tennis, there's something there. There is a story. She understood that. She got that. She comes‑‑ she comes with me to my club very often, so she wants a racquet now. She has a little racquet. But she will do whatever she wants. I will never push for that. And I will follow her, that's for sure. Q. Just wondering if you could maybe from your perspective talk about how the game, the women's game of tennis has changed since you retired and your thoughts on the game right now and the top players. JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah. What I admire and respect so much is still that Serena remains the boss. I mean at her age, after everything she accomplished, and probably she will do the Grand Slam this year and beat some records. It's something that we all have to respect. I know what it takes to wake up and still want to go to do the hard work, and that's fantastic. The thing that I regret a little bit is that I don't have the feeling that she's really pushed by the other players. In the last few months probably Azarenka could do that, and she's the player that I see in the best position to do that. She was very close at the French Open and in different tournaments in the past few weeks, but there are many girls that can play good tennis, but it's not consistent enough. I wish I could see more four or five or six girls that really go‑‑ that we know in every tournament it's the same girls that we're going to see at the end of the tournament so the level can get higher. But of course, there is good tennis, but I wish the girls can be more consistent and believe that they can beat Serena, because some players proved in the past that it is possible. And I think they don't believe in it enough. Q. Do you see a difference in terms of the way Serena plays is with a lot of power? You were known for like sort of your all‑around court game and using different shots. Do you see that there's a difference in that a lot of the girls or a lot of the women playing right now are going for those big, powerful shots? JUSTINE HENIN: Well, it's still a game that the ball is going very fast, and the girls hit pretty hard. Serena improved, I think a lot in terms of doing different things, using different shots on the court. I completely agree with that, especially on clay, because we can talk about what happened at the French Open. She was sick, and of course, that was part of the story, but in another way she really plays better on the surface, I think. And she has the‑‑ she wants to do different things on the court. I could see that. And I like that. And when I see‑‑ Halep is probably the girl that I really appreciate the most to watch, because she tries to do different things. And when she is in defense she can do high balls. She can try to put more pressure, come to the net a little bit. And I can‑‑ she reminds the way I was playing a little bit, even if there are different things. But I wish I could see more of that on the circuit. Q. You mentioned Halep, and Halep has said that you're one of her idols, and I'm just wondering we just saw a semifinal with two of the women's players who are the smaller players, and you, of course, weren't one of the tallest players, but you sort of defied the odds and you had a great career. So maybe just some of your thoughts on sort of the smaller players still showing that you don't necessarily have to be tall. JUSTINE HENIN: Of course. I mean I proved it, because when I was a teenager, not‑‑ I mean the different coaches and the agents and even persons of my family, they really thought I was too small to be professional, very good tennis player. And I always believed that I could use my qualities; I could be quick, I could be par for myself if I improved technically. And the girls that I see or I could see on the court this afternoon proved, too, that it is possible. And you can compensate it in another way. You have to be smart and you have to think differently. And that's good because you really have to think, okay, now, what do I have to do. But you have to work physically probably twice harder than the others because you have to compensate in a way or another. So I think there is no problem with that. It's very‑‑ for these girls it's pretty hard to have a long career because physically, like I said, you have to work twice harder than the others, so your body suffers probably a little bit, yeah, faster than the others. Q. Justine, when you talk about the consistency and maybe the lack of consistency that you're seeing, what do you chalk that up to? Why do you think that the current set, they're maybe not as consistent as maybe the generation for you? Is it mental, physical, technical? JUSTINE HENIN: I don't know because I'm not enough on the tour to really understand why it is, but I don't know. That's a good question. It's probably part physically and probably also mentally. It's very hard to stay focused during a whole season. It's very hard to get concentrated and to really stay in your bubble, and of course, the media attention keeps going and the sponsors and everything. And I think girls have to remember that the most important thing is to be on the court and try to win as many matches as possible. And of course, you have to enjoy what you're doing. That's why we are here, to get the passion and to enjoy what we're doing. But at the end we keep the results. And I don't know. Maybe it's part of the reasons. I can see good matches, but I really wish we can see that, you know, often enough so the level can get higher. I hope it's going to change and get better. Q. And from the commentary booth now when you're out there watching the matches any, does the game look similar to you or does it look different? JUSTINE HENIN: No, it didn't change that much. Maybe a little bit, girls are hitting harder and harder and harder. But I think it was okay. In my generation I would say‑‑ I feel old when I do that, when I say that. But no, it was when I was playing, I had the feeling that you were the last 16 and really everyone could win the tournament; and in the Grand Slams, the concurrence was so, so high; and it was a great generation. I mean it was, I think, Venus and Serena pushed a lot of players to raise their level. I mean they put the game to another level, and it was fantastic to be part of it because we had to push ourselves all the time to get better. And there was Kim; there was a time of Davenport, Capriati. There was Hingis. There was the Williams sisters, all the Russian girls coming on the tour. There was Mauresmo, Sharapova coming. That was a fantastic time. Q. That was a great era. It was a tough one. As one of ‑‑ kind of Serena is going to be the story through most of the summer, so as one of her greatest rivals and so many hard‑fought matches, what was the key for you when playing her? JUSTINE HENIN: Well, when you want to beat Serena, you need to be at your best all the time. First, you have to believe that you can do it. That's the first thing. And then you need to from the first point until the end to be 100 percent in terms of energy and putting a lot of pressure. You need to be good in defense because you know that Serena is hitting the ball very hard and you're going to suffer, of course, because she's going to hit the ball very hard and she's going to move you. And you need very good in defense and try to take the lead in the point as soon. As you get an opportunity, you really have to take that because you know that there won't be so many opportunities in the match. But it's very hard against her is that even if she's not playing at her best when she is under pressure, she can, especially on her serve, do a fantastic job. I always remember in 2010 I was leading ‑‑ at the Australian Open final, I was leading 1‑0 in the third and 15‑40 on her serve, and she served I think three or four aces almost 200 kilometers per hour. So it was only her that can do that. Mentally she is the strongest I had to play. And yeah, maybe she's still even better today than she was a few years ago. It's amazing. Q. And then just about the Rogers Cup and obviously being inducted, what are your significant or most memorable moments at this tournament? What sticks out to you? JUSTINE HENIN: I remember the blackout in 2003. That's for sure. I mean it's not many times in your life that you experience that. It was still on the old site, and it was great‑‑ a great memory. But in terms of tennis, 2007 it has been a great tournament for me. It was‑‑ the first tournament after my loss against Bartoli in semifinal of Wimbledon, and coming back here, I really wanted to get better and to forget this loss and get ready for the US Open. It was a perfect preparation I could dream of. And yeah, I won two times the tournament, and I wish I could do well also in Montreal. But in Montreal there was always something wrong, I was injured or sick or playing bad or, and here in Toronto I had a good‑‑ yeah, it was‑‑ it was a good one. That's right. Q. It's obviously very difficult to get to the top in your sport. How hard is it to stay there? JUSTINE HENIN: Well, it's much harder to stay there than to get there. I mean to win a Grand Slam is something, but to win more Grand Slams and more like me, but there is more like Serena or Steffi Graf or Navratilova. It's still another planet. But it is very difficult because you reach your dream, you reach your goal and you realize that in one second it's over and you need to go to the next one, because we can forget that very quickly. And when you win one, you realize if you want to be there for a few years or if you're just there for winning one Grand Slam or being No. 1 just for one week or try to stay there. And it is difficult because when you are at the top everyone looks after you and wants to beat you. But it's the rule, and at that time you really realize why you are there, what you want to do on the circuit. Yeah, it's a lot of hard work, and even if you are No. 1 in the world, you have to improve; you need to improve, and I remember when I was No. 1, I was still going three times a week with my coach working technically on the court, looking after my grip, one or two millimeters of difference maybe to try to improve my forehand, and that's why you stay there for a long time. But that's why when I see Serena right now and the way she wants to be here and the way she keeps fighting, I know how hard it is, so I respect that very much. Q. Are you in any way surprised that she's doing what she's doing at age 33? JUSTINE HENIN: I am a little surprised that she still wants to be here, that's for sure. She still has the fire. And probably also the fact that sometimes she was away from the court for a long time and then came back, and she always got the physical capacities to come back pretty quickly and easily on the circuit, so that's an advantage probably for her. But I am also surprised like we don't have girls really that‑‑ a new generation that really say, okay, the old ones, now, you go, we take our place. And well, it's not over yet. I hope it's going to happen. Q. We talked obviously a lot about Serena, but seems like even non tennis fans know who she is, and I'm just wondering if you think her dominance has held back the women's game in any way. Do you think, or just because people kind of assume that she's going to win every tournament. JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah. Q. Does that maybe hold back some fans or do you think it adversely affects the tour? JUSTINE HENIN: I mean the fans they like to have one‑‑ you know, on the men's tour it's different because there are three‑‑ or we say the big four, and it's good because you get the concurrence. Now, with Serena it's a little bit too much that everyone support, but we don't have to think that because she's dominating it's going to be easy for her. I mean it's going to be tough probably at the US Open to stay focused‑‑ not to stay focused, but to handle the pressure, but with the experience she gets, I have the feeling it won't be too, too difficult. But I think that for the game it will be very important that we need two, three or four players behind her that really try to push her much more. It is very important. Even if we all like to have one, you know, idol that we run after, but nah, I think it's a little bit too much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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