TENNIS: 25-year-old Henin retires

Published 8:04 pm Wednesday, May 14, 2008

It was another abrupt retirement announcement by a noted tennis champion, the second time in about six months that the WTA Tour has been hit by stunning news.

But Justine Henin’s departure from the sport — while she was still ranked No. 1 — was nothing like the shock of Martina Hingis’ announcement in November that she had tested positive for cocaine and had opted to leave professional tennis for the second time.

Unlike the struggling Hingis, Henin was a legitimate contender at every Grand Slam, no matter the surface. The tour said she is the first woman in professional tennis to retire from the sport while holding the top spot. She quits tennis having won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four at the French Open.

“This is the end of a child’s dream,” Henin, 25, said at a news conference today in her native Belgium. “It is a new beginning for me. I feel like I already lived three lives. I gave the sport all I could and took everything it could give me. I take this decision without the least bit of regrets. It is my life as a woman that starts now.”

She insisted that the move was permanent, rather than a mere hiatus.

“I thought long about this,” Henin said. “I started thinking about it late last year. I was at the end of the road. I leave with my head held high.”

The lasting visual memory of Henin was the ability of her small frame, a mere 5 feet 5, to generate a sublime and powerful one-handed backhand.

It was clear the often physically fragile Henin was not herself in recent weeks in the run-up to the French Open, on her beloved clay, which starts later this month. She lost early in the German Open last week to Dinara Safina in three sets and announced she was fatigued and withdrew from the Italian Open.

The lone gap on her impressive resume was Wimbledon. She reached the final twice on the grass, most recently in 2006. Henin ruled clay, having won the French Open four times in a five-year span; she also captured the U.S. Open twice and the Australian Open once. Though illnesses cut short her schedule in 2004, Henin managed to win an Olympic gold medal in Athens.

“Justine Henin will be remembered as one of the all-time great champions in women’s tennis, and a woman who made up for her lack of size with a will to win and a fighting spirit that was second to none,” said Larry Scott, the tour’s chief officer.

Said legend Billie Jean King: “Pound for pound, Justine is the greatest player of her generation.”