Back for more

For sometime in the near future, those staggering at the top light, topless WTA chart for the last year and a half would have a tough time confining their beleaguered minds to sweet repose. For lo, not one but two, who ruled in the near past are back. While one wasted no time engraving the impact of her return for posterity, the other’s imminent reappearance evokes gurgles of exhilaration. The lady, who left the tour in a flurry, is back to resume unfinished business.
Justine Henin first drew the public attention as a serious candidate for the top slot, when she reached the women’s singles semifinals of the French Open in 2001. All of 19 then, this girl barely 5 ft 5 inches tall, exuded an arcane aura that left many guessing what nestled deep in the niches of her heart. And it was this inability to invade the seemingly apathetic façade she had erected that left many bewildered when at 25; she decided to throw in the towel citing no specific reason. Henin felt her life goals had taken a diversion, and tennis had no place in the scheme of things and that was all she would proffer.
Henin was the first woman to call it quits, while still entrenched on topmost rung of the WTA. At the press conference she convened, Henin had announced stoically, “I’m at the end of the road. This is the end of a child’s dream. I started thinking about (retirement) late last year. I leave with my head held high.”
But a year down the line and the petite lady from Belgium seems to have herded her thought processes to those very goals that first propelled her to fame.
Another impelling factor could be fellow Belgian and rival Kim Clijsters successful comeback to the tour. But unlike Clijsters whose career has been manoeuvred with the support of her family, Henin’s professional swings could be ascribed to her turbulent personal life that spilled on to important decisions. Henin’s life has been as much about battling adversaries on court as about contending with adversity off the court. But post the post-retirement phase the lady seems to have made peace and focussed her contemplative energies productively. Sixteen months away from the glare should have given the former star time to expurgate the mental garbage and come back rejuvenated with renewed goals.
A challenge would be to consolidate on court ability with off court affability. And there is none more aware than Henin herself, that complementary to professional success comes personal equanimity. And this time Henin would be keen to get the right mix. “There’s going to be a serenity, a new calmness, about me,” she says.
In a career that spanned nine years, Henin gathered a total of 41 WTA Tour titles and held the world No1 spot for 117 non-consecutive weeks, and it was in this position that she retired on May 14, 2008. Of her major achievements four were executed on the red clay of Roland Garros, with two from the USA and one from Australia. But missing was the one from Wimbledon, which should give Henin the drive and the motivation to make her second coming worthwhile. And it would be precisely this elusive title, the hunger towards which could make her return bear fruition. As she says, ‘“It is a dream of mine. I want to work to get it. I make it a priority.”
Being one of the most accomplished tennis players, in terms of talent and artistry conquering the grass lawns in her second stint wouldn’t be too mean a task
The seven-time Grand Slam winner had a fluid single-handed backhand that earned her the awe of many. Agile and athletic, she had the resolute power to take her all the way and her diminutive self was no failing. The most to gain would be the WTA tour, whose apparent falling standards and erratic performances have earned an equivocal disregard for the No 1 status.
If Henin’s return could be as productive as Clijsters, it could cause interesting upheavals in the power structure. The tour that was jolted when the highest seat of power was left vacant, even after more than a year fails to find a permanent conqueror. Though the Williams sisters have lend a semblance of dominance on the tour, it remains restricted to the Grand Slams. There again the signs of decline are gradually surfacing. The return of the two former No 1s could set the field for more solid clashes. Already Clijsters has sashayed into the top 20 with her incredible Slam-winning performance. There is no doubt Henin too could pick up from where she left off, which could happen in the next major itself and if so, could set the cat among the pigeons.