SAYONARA JUSTINA

To be frank, i dint know that Henin had retired until one morning when my brother pointed out to me. It was a week old news. The retirement was on the cards no doubt, her walk-no doubt successful-were like of a bollywood hero wounded, yet with enough strength to kill the opponent and squeeze one last song with his heroine. Yet, like every other tennis lover i too had predicted the end to come after the French open not weeks before it. She was expected to defend her title and most likely to keep it to herself for another year. But careers mostly limp and lurch to a finish, and sloppy happy endings remain in Karan Johar's minds.
Fair enough, the Belgian was not always the most graceful of champions. Still, her retirement, while punishing the crowd, was unfortunate and not much more. Estranged from her father, losing her mother early, forced to push her reedy figure to its maximum physical capacity to win, undone in her peak by a debilitating virus, Henin knows despair but had stoically found her way through it all. She has been a fighter, specially during the last few months where she was so stressed out due her health, her relations with her husband, yet she fought like a roman soldier approaching the end of a month old war and returned to the top before the season ended.
The most immodestly gifted woman in tennis is modestly sized and looks like she might need to be tied down in a gale. The Belgian Henin resembles a reed but hits with such ferocity that her racquet must feel like a swishing cane to her opponents. She made tennis look all work and no play, but when that hint of a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, it deserved extra points.
She was never model-like like Sharapova or Ivankovic. A magnifying glass was required to discover muscles on the diminutive Belgian unlike Mauresmo or Safina. In a world of six-footers Sharapova, Davenport, Venus, and even Hingis at 5ft 7in is officially taller than her, they may look down on the 5ft 6in champion, but in terms of skills must be looking up to her.
Davenport's departure was pre meditated, Hingis's exit appalling but Henin's will leave a big void in women's tennis which will take more than Sharapova's shoes and Ivankovic's skimpy dresses to fill. Facts and not figures make the Belgian stood out. Let her rest now, she deserves it.