	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. OPEN

August 29, 2007

Justine Henin

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Another good match for you today. A good second round. Clearly you're in what everyone calls the harder half of the draw. One or two matches before you hit the opponents that start to get really hard. How do you feel about that?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, I feel like I will have a third round and that's my next goal. I don't look too far. I never did really this kind of mistake in the past. I know a lot of surprises can happen.
You have to work hard every day. Even if it looks pretty easy for you guys outside of the court, I think you have to do your job the best you can.
No, I'm just happy the way I won my last two matches. Just go step by step and try to build my confidence day after day. For the rest, we will see. In a Grand Slam, you have to be strong, win seven matches. It's tough; it's long. You need to be consistent for two weeks.
Little mistakes can make a big difference so you need to be aware all the time.

Q. You and Venus played almost identical second-round matches. Your winners to unforced errors is 2-1. You really seem to be maybe the most consistent player on the women's tour. Do you think that's why you're at No. 1 and why you have the best shot maybe at winning here?
JUSTINE HENIN: Well, when I look at my results in the last year and a half I've been very, very consistent, being almost all the time in the semifinals.
I just wish it could keep going this way (knocking on wood). No, it's great. I enjoy my game. I'm healthy. That's the most important thing.
You know it's important to go for the winners, not just thinking about not doing any mistakes, but just go for it. My serve was a bit better today so I was pretty happy. My shoulder is getting better. A lot of good things.
But, yeah, day after day a lot of things can happen, so we'll see.

Q. You say it may look easy. Those of us that look at stats sheets, we see 6-4, 6-Love. Is it deceptive? Even in the early-round matches, do you feel a little letdown can be an unpleasant result?
JUSTINE HENIN: Sure, you have to be careful all the time. You need to be focused. You need to prepare your match the best you can. You need to be ready.
At the beginning of the match I wasn't aggressive enough. I wasn't probably ready to fight hard in the first few games of the match, and it was 4-All. You need to be very careful all the time.
So it's pretty tough, because it's kind of matches we have to win, and if we can play well. So it's tough in the first week because there's a lot of attention. It's pretty normal if we win, but you need to pay a lot of attention on that, be really careful in every match.

Q. How important is it in a fortnight tournament to try to get through in straight sets in terms of conserving your energy?
JUSTINE HENIN: It's important, but I'm not quite sure it does mean a lot of things. I've been in trouble sometimes when I won Grand Slams, I've been in trouble in my first week. For me, it doesn't mean anything. It's good physically if you can remain fresh and mentally and emotionally.
In another way, if you can get a little bit in the competition early, I think it's pretty good, too. I don't think that much about that. I just take whatever I can take and be positive and move forward.

Q. This is the most important of the Grand Slams for you in a sense. Outside of tennis circles, is that crucial to the endorsement opportunities or just going beyond?
JUSTINE HENIN: It is an important tournament. It's a Grand Slam, like the three other ones. Maybe more because it's here in the U.S. Maybe it's bigger business. There's a lot of attention. It's a big show.
I don't know. I never really thought about that. I love what I do so much, if it's New York, Australia, Paris, London, anywhere else. I'm on the tennis court, that's what I love to do. That's the only thing I really care about, just give my best wherever I play.

Q. Given all the emotional highs and lows for you this year between separation and reconciliation, have you made the decision to sort of go for it in the rest of your life outside of tennis, strike more of a balance between tennis?
JUSTINE HENIN: Yeah, the thing is that I enjoy my tennis probably much more now than maybe a year ago. All the decisions I took is just to feel better, be a better person. If it can help my tennis, that's great.
But I realized tennis is not everything in my life. It's going to be a few more years. But I just want to be happy. I feel great with the decisions I took. I can tell you it's been very hard times emotionally. A lot of ups and downs.
I've been really proud the way I could deal with the situation, because at 25 years old it's not that easy. Yeah, I decided to live by myself. Then being in contact with my family, which was great, it's the best decision I took in the last few years. It's just a great feeling.
But life is short, and I want to enjoy every moment of it. That's what I really realized in the last few months. Especially with my family back in my life, there's a lot of love. That's good, because I know they are behind me now for the rest of my life. That's a great feeling.

Q. Is the tennis court your sanctuary?
JUSTINE HENIN: It's the place where I feel great. I was probably born to do that. Tennis, I've learned a lot of things with my career about me, what I want, the person I want to become. It really helped me to grow up very quickly, too, because I gave 200% all the time for that.
It's 20 years I played tennis. A lot of sacrifices. But the best thing is just the emotions that it gave me and the emotions I could give to people I love and to my fans. Very, very emotional, yeah. Very lucky to do that.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297