Henin grabs first WTA C’ships title

MADRID — After watching three Grand Slam titles slip away, winning the WTA Championships to finish the season with a No. 1 ranking was the perfect finale for Justine Henin-Hardenne.
“I proved some things to myself at the end of the season and I’m No. 1, so today is as good as winning a Grand Slam,” Henin-Hardenne said Sunday. “It was a tough challenge for me. I didn’t really know what to expect when I got here.”
The French Open champion cut short her recovery time from a muscle tear in her right knee just to compete in the season-ending championships for the first time since 2003.
“I came here saying we’ll see just day after day, just live this moment right now, that’s what I did great during the last few days and I probably never enjoyed my tennis like I did this week,” she said. “It was amazing.”
Henin-Hardenne was the fifth player to reach all four Grand Slam finals and the WTA Championships final in the same year, and the first since Steffi Graf in 1993.
She won a tour-high six titles, reaching 10 finals in her 13 tournaments played.
“I can look back and say in my final in Wimbledon and at the U.S. Open I couldn’t be at my best level, but I’m not going to think too much about that and I’m just going to keep everything that went well this season and say that it’s been the best season of my career,” Henin-Hardenne said.
The 24-year-old Belgian lost to Mauresmo in the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals, and No. 2 Maria Sharapova in the U.S. Open final.
She repaid them by clinching her second season-ending No. 1 crown with the championships victory.
“It’s not easy to be very consistent, and it’s a lot of hard work,” Henin-Hardenne said. “I really evolved a lot this year, and physically it was an transition year for me because I had to change my training due to injuries.
“Hopefully next year I can change my training again so that I can push myself even harder if my body will let me so I can come back even stronger in 2007.”
She called the black bandaging she sported on the back of her calf in Madrid her “secret weapon” at the championships.
Her coach, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, explained that the constrictive V-shaped bandage kept “the muscle warm” on one side and “on the other side is a liquid that helps to activate blood circulation in the muscle.”
With a Wimbledon title her next target, another finals clash with Mauresmo seems inevitable.
“I hope (we meet again),” Mauresmo said. “If we both definitely keep playing, keep being consistent at the highest level, of course, I guess we’re going to have more meetings.
“(I) definitely want to be in other Grand Slams finals and compete against the best players. I think that’s why you play tennis, to have these big moments, these big matches, even sometimes you lose, it’s not easy to handle. But it makes you stronger.”
Mauresmo was looking forward to the holidays after a career-year that included 34 weeks at No. 1 and four titles, including her first two Grand Slams.
“It feels great, all the goals I achieved and it gives you appetite for next year,” the Frenchwoman said. “Once you’ve tasted these emotions and big moments, you just want to have more.”
Henin-Hardenne wasn’t looking that far ahead just yet.
“I don’t want to think about next year right now,” she said. “I just want to enjoy the moment and I think it’s very important life goes to fast and if I start to think about what’s going to happen next year I think I will miss some very important emotions right now. —Agencies