AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2006

Justine Henin

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I wasn't feeling that great on the court. Not very comfortable. I didn't know her at all and it took me almost a set to get used to her game. There was no rhythm in the match. I was doing the mistakes and the winners. That's not the kind of game I like. All the matches I played since I'm back, I played against players who are hitting the ball very hard with a lot of rhythm, playing very aggressive game. That's what I like, you know. Today I never really found the good balance between the aggressivity and the patience. It took time. But that's the kind of match you have to win even if you're not playing good.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Sorry?

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I think that women's tennis is changing a little bit. We cannot say that the first week is easy for the top seeds. I think it's pretty different now 'cause we could see very difficult results in the first rounds, and a lot of difficulties for the top-seed players. So we have to be focused in every match because all these players, they want to beat us and they want to be at our place. We need to be hundred percent all the time. I think that change from a couple years ago.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I think I hate to play someone that I never saw playing and that I never heard anything about. So it's not easy because you don't know what really to expect. Even if you know that you have to play your game and that's probably enough to win the match, it's pretty hard because you need to know a little bit what's gonna happen. So I don't like too much this kind of situation.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, I know.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, it is difficult, but you need to stay focused for every point. I think that she wasn't moving that well after the injury, so I hope she will recover very quickly. But it's not easy. You need to stay focused on your game and not thinking about too much the fact that she's not playing well.