AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 27, 2006

Justine Henin

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I think so. I hope so. No, I think it's going to be a good match, I hope. It's very interesting. Very happy to play Amélie because I think it's going to be a tough mission for myself. But I really believe in my chances. She will have great motivation, for sure, to get her first Grand Slam title. But I do have mine, and I hope it's going to turn a good way.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Really, no, I think that today I just have to take some time to recover and just leave my spirit a little bit free of all this pressure and everything, and just get ready tomorrow in my warmup. I will have time to think of what I will have to do during this match. You don't have to think too much about that, you just have to be focused on something else. It would come easily tomorrow morning and maybe this night already.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I have my own routines. But I did hit the ball today for 45 minutes. I'm going to have a massage. I'm going to go to my room and watch some DVDs, listen to some music, call home, you know, do these kind of things that going to make me feel better.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, he's home.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, I think it's the same kind of feeling. Even if I know that maybe I have to use a little bit this experience, it's from the past. I just need to stay focused on what's going to happen tomorrow. Every situation is very different. It's very hard to predict anything. You don't know what to expect. You try to use your experience, but a Grand Slam final is always something very, very special. It's a different kind of atmosphere, different kind of tension. You feel it. It is different. But for me, I'm as nervous as I was for the first one. It's great because I need that if I want to play well.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Like I said, every situation is different. Tomorrow, it's going to be 50/50 because both of us, we want this title, and that's it. I think both of us, we have a great game. We going to do everything we can to win this match. What happened in the past doesn't matter any more. It's going to be different tomorrow.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, we know each other pretty well. We played each other a couple of times. I think there are no big surprises in our game for the other. It's going to be interesting, for sure.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I think it was in Sydney in 2004 in the final. But I think the surface is pretty good for both of us. I think it doesn't make a big difference.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No. I didn't watch any match at The Championships. I was there for one night because I had to do a couple things, but I didn't watch anywhere.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I was pretty happy for Amélie because she deserved that victory. She's a great player. I have a lot of respect for her, so I was pretty happy. She was waiting for that such a long time and she got it. I wasn't very surprised. She has the game to do it. Good for her.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I'm surprising myself a little bit for sure after such a long time off. I think I have for sure more experience than I had still three years ago. All the injuries, the illnesses and everything, I really enjoy my game now. That's probably the biggest difference because I feel very lucky to be healthy and be back on the courts. I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to play this tennis as I did since I arrive here in Australia. I'm very happy the way I came back. But it's just one step. It's not the end, you know. The season is very long. I hope for healthy season that I can play all the tournaments I want to play. We will make conclusions at the end of the whole season because for me it's been very hard last two years and now I want to play. I do long-term plans, and I hope it's going to be fine.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It's very hard to say. But in the last two years I never felt as good as now. Even if I played well in a couple of tournaments, I wasn't feeling physically as well as I am feeling right now. When physically you're feeling well, when you're feeling healthy a hundred percent, then mentally you're feeling stronger. Doesn't matter of the result of tomorrow. It's the way I am feeling right now. It's great because I hope it's going to stay for such a long time now.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It's great, yeah. I love this kind of atmosphere. Yesterday was amazing crowd. I feel that I missed that so much in the past few months. I just feel very lucky. That's why I'm playing tennis, because I love to play in this kind of atmosphere, on big courts, good crowds. That makes me feel very special.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, I didn't see her.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: We try to. It's not always easy to do the smart things and to take the smart decisions. I know that my body was tired still a few months ago. Probably I had to change a few things and work a little bit more on the prevention, on my recovery, because I think recovery is part of the workout. I think it's very important you take time to get relaxed. You have to take it easy sometimes. I think I work pretty hard - differently than in the past. Yeah, it's another way to see the future now. I think I took the right decisions. I have no regrets about that.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I think that we always, both of us, we want to improve, for sure. We always want an evolution in my game. We always try to make me much more aggressive, stay on my baseline. That's the way I'm going to play for a long time. I'm not going to play for five more years if I stay far from my baseline. I have to think that it's the way I have to play in the future, for sure.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: No, except playing tennis and do my workout. I don't do any sports because I want to do something else when I'm not playing tennis. I played a lot of ping-pong when I was younger, but I don't think it does help.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: When I'm on the tour, when I have this adrenaline on the courts, I don't need to do skydiving. It's just when I'm off the courts, when I need to find something else. But not any more right now.