US OPEN

September 1, 2005

Justine Henin

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English for Justine.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, a little bit. The conditions were pretty difficult today and worse yesterday, I think. But I did serve a couple of double-faults. But we could see that when my first serve is in, I win a lot of points. So I need to be very focused on that, and I'm sure I'll serve better - I hope - next match.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I think, like I said, the conditions were pretty difficult, so it's windy so you have to stay aggressive all the time. Even if I had a difficult start, from that to 6-3, 4-1, it wasn't too bad. Then at the end I served a couple of double-faults. I got tight a little bit. So it was a little bit tough at the end of the match, but I could keep my serve. So we could see that when I play really aggressive, go to the net a lot, I win a lot of points. So I have to keep going this way.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It is, for me, a tough question right now. It's not getting worst (sic), but it's not getting better neither. So I'll have to see after the Open what I'm going to do to the end of the season 'cause, like I said, I don't want to come in November and then be injured and not starting working hard in November. So now it's not getting worse, so that's good. But we'll see. After the Open, we can make a condition for -- a decision for the next weeks.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Not right now. I just took one after Wimbledon; that helped a lot. But as soon as I start working on the hit and doing sprints, you know, I need to get in shape and I need to work pretty hard. That's what I did a couple of weeks ago. It's been hard enough for me to recover physically. So now we'll see what's going to happen for me in the next few weeks.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: I start to feel old on the tour. I'm only 23, but now I see girls are 15, 16 years old and are playing great tennis. So I'm for sure not that young for a tennis career. It's not the end of my career, but I have a couple of more years. But I may be in the middle of it, and that's probably my best years right now. So I have to enjoy that because the young players are coming very strong and they're gonna give us a lot of hard time.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, no, it's been natural that new players are coming. It's good. That makes the concurrence higher, and that's very good because now every match is pretty hard and you need to stay focused and you see new faces. It's very good for women's tennis. It's the future of the game. Everybody has a time on the tour and that's it; it's gonna be another player one day.

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: Yeah, they're physically very strong and hitting the ball very hard. So it's gonna be tough in the next few years for me (smiling).

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE: It's for my tendinitis on my hamstring.