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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 31, 2007

Justine Henin

KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You're a great athlete, and an even greater professional. It got really tough for you out there, two tumbles that you took. How are you feeling physically?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, I feel okay. I just fell down twice in the match, and my knee's hurt a little bit now. But it's okay. It's been a good fight. It's been a good match, and I had many chances, many opportunities. I felt I was better until the end of the second set. I felt I had the match under control, and then the match turned over.
Yeah, I was playing a good game. I was really aggressive. But when I had to close the match, I got maybe tense a little bit.
And Serena is a fighter; she never gives up. And she proved it on the matchpoints because she took her chances at the time, she played really aggressive. She played better than me on the important points.
It's been very close, but a little bit disappointed for sure. But also I take a lot of positive things from this tournament to go back home.

Q. You sat on the ground for a few minutes. What were you thinking when this was happening?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, just I hurt my knee at the time, and I needed a little bit of time to see how things were going for me. It's nothing serious, so it's okay.

Q. After the first fall, when you skinned your knee?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah.

Q. Do you feel it inhibited your game in any way?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, for a few points maybe I wasn't really focused anymore like I was before that. But no excuses. I mean, at that time I had my chances before that, and I still had my chances after that. I didn't take the opportunities. I didn't play aggressive enough when I had to on the important points at the end of the match that made the difference at this level.
And the only thing I can have regrets about is that for a few games I wasn't really focused on every point, and I lost a couple of games in a row because I was maybe still focused on these matchpoints and these opportunities that I missed.
At this level, games are going pretty fast.

Q. Has this been something of a problem in the past, where you get off to a fast start, and then you seem to relax a little bit and get a little too cautious?
JUSTINE HENIN: No, I've proved many times, I think, that I'm mentally pretty tough out there. I won matches saving matchpoints, and I lost matches when I had matchpoints. That's life, that's tennis. And I will have other chances, I'm sure about that. I don't have anything else to prove about my mental toughness.

Q. You haven't played her in a long time, and can you just comment on her level? Is it different playing her than all the other girls on the tour because of her fighting spirit and her game?
JUSTINE HENIN: For sure she's a fighter. It's tough to close the matches against her, because she goes for it. I mean, she has a lot of experience. She's a champion, and that makes a difference from the other players for sure. She doesn't play really differently from what she did in the past, but she's playing at her best level, and that's good.
I felt that I had the match under control and I missed a little bit of things, yeah, on crucial points, so I'll wait for my next chance.

Q. It was great to see that neither of you used on-court coaching. That was the best part of the match for me.
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, I don't think I need my coach on the court. I know what he wants from me, and we've worked 11 years together. It's clear enough. And I think I'm old enough now to know what I have to do on the court. So yeah, it's been good.

Q. It looked like you had some pleasant conversation both at the net and on the awards podium afterwards. Is there more of an ease to your relationship now than there was years ago?
JUSTINE HENIN: The relationship is very good now. We have a lot of respect for each other. We proved it during the match. We both have a lot of qualities, and we both agree that we are very good players. So, I mean, what happened in the past is far away from now. A lot of things happened since that.
And she has very nice words to me, and I think I have a lot of respect for everything she's doing. We can make the difference between what's happening on the court and off the court, so that's good.

Q. Would you be willing to tell us what she said?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, no, she said it was good, that I'm a real competitor. Yeah, she had nice words about that. It was a good fight, and I think we both enjoyed the match. We showed a good match to the crowd also, and everyone was pretty happy about that.

Q. When you lost that second set, obviously you must have been extremely disappointed, then you lost three games in a row. Were you still struggling mentally? What happened there, because it seems that things seemed to run away from you a little bit?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, a little bit. That's the only thing I have regrets about is that, yeah, things were going pretty quickly at that time. I lost my serve and 1-0 in the third set. So yeah, probably I understood, I realized that I had the match and lost it at that time, but the match wasn't over yet. So it was tough, but the kind of thing that can happen. It's going to be another experience for me, and I will take a lot of positive things from that match.

Q. This is a very emotional month for you, we all know that. But your success here in the last 11 days, do you think it will change the way you feel about this tournament in general?
JUSTINE HENIN: I hope so. Who knows? Everyone knows it's very special for myself, and every year it's going to be very special because it's a tough moment. And yeah, that's life.
So I really enjoyed my time here this time, even if it's been hard. I could have been out of the tournament in my third round, I was down 5-1 and just kept fighting.
It was much better this year. I enjoyed my game. I've played good tennis in the last few days.
Yeah, that gives confidence even if I lost today, and I hope next year I can come, you know, another way and be a little bit more confident about this tournament. So much better this year for sure.

Q. The ball that Serena hits, we're not on the court, how would you compare it? Is it heavier, harder than other top players, Sharapova, others?
JUSTINE HENIN: No, I don't think so. Her attitude is probably different. But no, she hits the ball pretty hard, and she can be very consistent when she wants. I think, you know, it's never over with her, and she gives everything on every shot. She serves pretty good. I mean, very smart on important points, also. And she just goes for it. She's not involved a lot. She knows why she's on the court, and yeah, she's going for it. So that makes the difference for it.

Q. If I could just follow up on the on-court coaching comment, you personally don't like it; you feel you have the maturity to handle this. Is it a bad message for the women's game to have it in general? In other words, does it seem to make other women players look weak if they need help between sets?
JUSTINE HENIN: I don't know what the others think about that. For myself, I think I don't need it, because the goal of Carlos is to be a little more experienced player on the court, and get everything -- take advantage of everything I did in the past. I grew up a lot, and I don't need him beside me to tell me. I know what I have to do.
I'm not quite sure it's going to be a good thing. Who knows, we'll see in the next few months. But I didn't see a lot of top players using it. Maybe for players that are not as high ranked, maybe they need it, but I don't think it helps the players themselves.

Q. On the two matchpoints as you think back on them, do you feel that Serena forced the play and seized those points or did you in some way make errors of judgment on them?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, on the first one, she played unbelievable. On the first one she's been very aggressive. I kept fighting, you know, these two lobs. On the second one, her ball was pretty heavy, and I didn't hit as hard on my forehand as I maybe did it a few games earlier. So maybe I have a little chance over there. I played pretty short, and she goes for it with her forehand.
You know, we can talk about that when you see it, when you look at it, it's two points in the match. So even if it's matchpoints, it's not as important as the few games after that I lost. I should have stayed a little bit more focused and concentrated at that time.

Q. At the end of the first set, you won obviously 6-0. Did you ever think okay, she's burnt out, because she played back-to-back? Or played other great players back-to-back?
JUSTINE HENIN: No. No. No. No, and she proved it early in the second set that she was getting better. She was more aggressive. She didn't do as many mistakes as she did in the first set after. No, she was in the match at the time, so I never thought it's going to be easy.

Q. You look at the results, look at the Australian Open and stuff. Does the women's game need you and Serena to be playing matches?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, no, we did a lot of good things from the beginning of the season, both of us. It's great to see her back. There's a lot of concurrence, and it's good to see the best players in the world competing in the big events now. But I just want to get focused on myself and see what I did.
I've had a couple of very tough times in the beginning of the year, and I'm back on the court. I did a lot of good things in the last few weeks, so I'm just going to keep going and practice now for a few weeks, rest, practice, and be ready on clay.

Q. You'll take some time off now to refresh. How, typically how long does it take you to make the transition from hard court to clay in Charleston and feel really comfortable on the court?
JUSTINE HENIN: I'm not going to go to Charleston; I just withdrew from it. Because I better go home and see a specialist also for my breathing problems, and everything I had this week. So I need this time off, and I'm very sad. It's a tournament I like a lot.
So I'll take the rest I need, and I'll get ready in a few weeks. My next tournament's going to be Warsaw, but you need at least two weeks to feel better, then you need matches on clay. Practice is one thing, but you need matches, and I hope I will get a lot of matches before the French.

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