Justine Henin – Wimbledon Ladies’ Tennis Player

World number one Justine Henin had a fairytale ending to her 2007 season. As one of only eight top-ranked women’s players to qualify for the end-of-year WTA Sony Ericsson Championships, she fought a marathon battle with Russian, Maria Sharapova to claim the final title of the year, her second back-to-back WTA Championships title.

Their three-hour and 24-minute match broke all previous records at the tournament, and Henin had to dig deep to come back from a set down to claim the final two sets, and the title, 5-7 7-5 6-3.

Her win at the WTA Championships emulated her fantastic form in the second half of the year. It extended her winning streak to a breath-taking 25 matches, and made her the first woman, since German tennis player extraordinaire Steffi Graf (1989), to go unbeaten in the latter half the year, post-Wimbledon.

To date she has won 39 singles titles, 23 of which were on hard-court, 12 on clay, 3 on grass and 1 on carpet, an indication of the young Belgian’s versatility. Her dominance is such that there are only 2 active tennis players who have a winning record over Henin – Venus Williams (7-2) and Lucie Safarova (1-0).

Since she turned pro in 1999 she has claimed seven Grand Slams, the only title which continues to elude her is Wimbledon. The closest she has been to lifting the coveted title was in 2001 and 2006 when she was runner-up against Venus Williams and Amelie Mauresmo respectively.

In 2007 Justine Henin, Wimbledon ladies’ tennis player, broke the $5 million barrier in prize money for a single season and is currently fifth on the all-time money list with a total of $18 million.

The feisty Belgian is known for her mental toughness, her speed around the court and her much talked about one-handed backhand, described by John McEnroe as the best single-handed backhand in the game.

Accolades continue to pour in for the 25-year-old, and one of her biggest fans is none other than Wimbledon champion, Martina Navratilova who is reported to have said: “Henin’s offence is just phenomenal… it’s sort of like we’ve got ‘the female Federer’, or maybe the guys have ‘the male Justine Henin’ because she is just head and shoulders above everyone else right now.” Quite a tribute from one of the most successful tennis players of all time!

Henin really is head and shoulders above the rest – she has won four French Open singles title, three of which were in consecutive years, two US Open titles and one Australian Open. She won the women’s singles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and in 2006 became the first woman since Steffi Graf from 1993 through 1996 to win at least one Grand Slam singles title in four consecutive years.

Henin is in rampant form going into 2008 and it is going to take someone really special to stop her in the future. All things being equal, Justine Henin should be able to finally triumph on the grass courts of the All England Club.