Henin finds her magic after shaky start

Justine about playing in Belgium: “It was so emotional”

FROM THE PROXIMUS DIAMOND GAMES IN ANTWERP – With a near sell-out crowd of 13.650 Belgian fans behind her, everyone was expecting a routine, straight sets win for Justine Henin in her opening match against Tsvetana Pironkova. But the No. 1 was having a surprisingly hard time with herself and the streaky Bulgarian, until after being a set and a break down, she started to find her rhythm. “It was a magical night,” said Henin.

Henin entered the Sportpaleis under a standing ovation from her Belgian fans. It was a welcoming comparable to the one Kim Clijsters underwent when she played her last tournament in front of a home crowd here last year. “It was so emotional,” said Henin. “I was really moved when I walked on court and saw all these people cheering for me. It was unique, because it’s not every day that you play a home match. That’s why I was nervous at the beginning, because I wanted to give back to this crowd.”

Those words were very reminiscent of what Clijsters said about her fans last year, but whereas Kim needed a mere 45 minutes to get through her first match, Henin required an extra one-and-a-half hour.

Henin immediately fell behind a break due to some bad misses. She evened the score quickly, but never took a lead. Serving at 4-5 and 5-6, she had to overcome a 15-30 deficit twice, before eventually dropping the set in a tiebreak. Henin was surprisingly erratic on her backhand wing, where she had a lot of trouble finding the right timing on her shots. She was also playing too defensively, not hitting for the lines or moving to the net, but sending most balls back to the middle of the court, to see what Pironkova would come up with.

The 20-year-old Bulgarian, who is best remembered for beating Venus Williams at the Australian Open in 2006, was playing aggressive tennis throughout the match, which at times resulted in the most amazing winners. She was never afraid to go for her shots, no matter what the score was. Slowly but surely, it was starting to look like her opportunistic game was going to pay off.

The Belgian fans began to realise during the changeover at 3-2 in the second set, and with Pironkova about to serve, that Henin needed to up her level, or she’d be out of the tournament. They had been relatively quiet up until this point, but when the umpire called time, the Belgians rocked the Sportpaleis on its foundations. On the first point of the following game, Henin scrambled for a few balls, and then passed Pironkova at the net on a short drop shot. The fans ate it up.

At 30-all, Pironkova missed a forehand after Henin had played some more great defense. The Belgian pounced on her first break point with some aggressive forehands, which forced Pironkova into a backhand error.

Henin was spurred on by the crowd and never looked back. She only lost one more game in the entire match, after playing a lot more offensively and cutting back on her errors. “When I won that game to come back to 3-3, I knew I would go on to win,” said Henin. “I started to hit winners from all over the court. The fans carried me to victory today.” Henin will face Russian qualifier Alisa Kleybanova in the quarterfinals.

SOUR BACK SENDS CHAKVETADZE CRASHING

Anna Chakvetadze complained she had a bit of a sour back when she arrived in Antwerp after winning the Tier II event in Paris last week, but said she would be fine by Thursday for her opening match. The No. 2 seed started off strong against Swedish lucky loser Sofia Arvidsson, but was quickly bothered by her injury, as she requested a medical time-out. When Chakvetadze lost the first set, she looked certain to retire, but instead played out the match. She eventually fell 6-3, 7-5.