As the world salutes Roger Federer, does Justine Henin get the praise she deserves?

How many times does it have to be said .. [Henin's life has not been free from controversy. The infamous 'hand incident' in the semis of the French Open in 2003 against Serena Williams, as well as her retiring in the 2006 Australian Open final against Amelie Mauresmo due to an upset stomach, have caused fans to question her honesty. A long estrangement from her father and a difficult divorce from her husband brought the Belgian attention, although not the kind an athlete seeks.] The "Hand" incident has only been controversial to Americans/ and the Anglo Saxon Williams swooning media. Everyone other country couldn't careless - and realized that Justine is the legit winner of Roland Garros.

Justine is the best player of this time and truly deserves to be number one. It is true that Roger seems to get all the attention but then again I believe that is because Justine has been much more introvert than him and we must accept that secretly it is a male dominated society so even if we don't want to accept it or see it, men still hold the upper hand on many things. Justine clearly deserves much more praise than what she gets about her sport, flawless out-of-the-book technique and her aggressive all court game along with her modest and humble personality. Justine is the epitome of how an athlete should be. Allez Juju! *** It's true the hand thing was only big in the anglo-saxon countries because they just could not stand seeing Serena their precious champion lose to the small humble woman from Belgium who has a fierce desire to play for the love of the game ***

Justine Henin crumbled rather pathetically to a then relatively unknown Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals of Wimbledon. It is not the sort of thing that happens to Roger Federer and this, ultimatley, explains why she is not spoken of in the same way as the Swiss. However, her tennis is unparalleled in the women's game and, should she win Wimbledon - the most prestigious slam by a long way - her standing would grow even further. In addition, there is no doubt the women's game just does not receive the same attention as the men's.

Oh... So you think we should encourage players to invite their favorite movie stars into their Grand Slam matches to inspire them to defeat this ugly duckling... I mean small Belgian?

JH is in my mind the most talented woman player of all time. She is the female Federer. In fact her movement and strokeplay are almost a mirror image of Roger's.

JH is in my mind the most talented woman player of all time. She is the female Federer. In fact her movement and strokeplay are almost a mirror image of Roger's.

whenever anyone talks about Henin, inevitably the talk of the french and Aussy incident inevitably come up. why do you bother writing anything about her at all? The truth is, it's because the williams sisters have not done anything newsworthy to write about! yet serena and venus fans all love the great Connors and Mac as if they were the shinning example of sportsmanship. if you admire gamesmanship, and outright cheating, they have shown that doing what it takes to win at all cost seems to be the way to get the win. I don't condone what Justine did, but how can you fawn over the likes of Connor and Mac on one hand and criticise Henin on the other. don't be a hypocrite and just admit you don't like her because she has beaten your favorite player; don't line it with excuses.

The main reason Justine is given far less credit is quite simply male chauvinism on the part of the Anglo Saxon sports media in particular but also in other parts of the world. Even at Roland Garros the main story wasn't just the question of whether Roger would finally win it but whether Nadal would win 3 times in a row. Until she did it, the fact that Justine could also win 3 times consecutively and had already won it 3 times was largely ignored! Even the tennis organization ignored this fact - they had a special prize all ready for Nadal's achievement but none for Justine! Fortunately, Navratilova ensured that this was put right. The same male chauvinism ensures that supposedly glamour or show biz tennis girls like Sharapova, Ivanovic and Serena/Venus are given disproportionate amounts of attention. It doesn't help that the other women who are envious of Justine's tremendous talent collude in this conspiracy. I am a fan of both men's and women's tennis - I think Roger, Rafa, Djokovic are all great. But

Well said acbc. I would just like to add that just as nasty Connors, Mc, Nastase have been on court, so has another great woman whom many tout as being the greatest, Martina Navratilova, even the current media darlings Sharapova and Williamses whose shrieks' decibel is selective according to the tightness of a match. And how about the press darling Martina Hingis who served underhand to Steffi during '99 Rolland Garros final? Not that it is illegal, but is it not gamesmanship also? Justine has not had enough credit go her way simply because of the low profile she has always maintained and also because she never tried to win anything but Tennis matches, leat of all stranger's people's approval. If Serena and Venus are acceptable inspite of showing extremely bad grace upon losing, then two questionable incidents in an otherwise terrrific carrers should not be the harp people resort to just to pull down an extremely deserving and in terms of the game - the most charismatic champion.

Wonderful game to watch..Henin is the best. Allez!

yup. sport has always been a male dominated thing. but that doesn't stop me from watching justine henin and women's tennis, and i think all juju fans recognize her talent and achievement. sure she's not a media darling like maria or the sisters, but i'm still pretty much more interested to know about justine than any of these media darlings. all said, justine is my no1 star!

[quote]JH is in my mind the most talented woman player of all time. She is the female Federer. In fact her movement and strokeplay are almost a mirror image of Roger's.[/quote] please. JH has what, 7 grand slam titles? what about chris evert, Martina navratilova, and steffi graf with about 3 times as many titles?

i pick steffi graf as the only player who deserves to be the all time great, for now. navratilova and evert, ah, yes, players from the 1980s...well they don't stand a chance aginst today's players. but steffi, well she was capable of keeping up and beating the power ladies: she leads seles 10-5, davenport 8-6, venus 3-2 and tied at 1-1 with serena. she won more singles grand slams in the 90s. navratilova had only won wimbledon'90 where as evert retired before the 80s closed its decade or whatever

justine may have won 7 single grand slams (as of 2007), but winning that much in this decade is more impressive than say, navratilova winning 17 singles grand slams in the '80s. to even qualify for a grand slam final these days is a daunting task for any player than it was during evert & navratilova's reigns. so, yeah i don't see why justine can not be regarded as the best all time according to MK

Please..Don't compare Seles and Graf..I agree,Graf leads Seles in head to head matches.But are you not aware,previous to the stabbing incident,Seles lead Graf 3-1 in GrandSlams.Seles was never the same after the stabbing. How can anybody deny that Steffi achieved so much after Seles was stabbed.Monica won 8 Grand Slams by the time she was barely 19.Has anyone ever done it before??And how come Graf was able to win so little when Seles was there..Please dont bring up "Graf had personal problems".Thats bullshit. Graf won just one GS in 92,91 and lost the 93 AO final to Seles,but managed to win the remaining 3 GS of 93.How come Graf had personal problems only till early 93 and all her problems vanished after Seles was stabbed?? The truth is that Graf was no match for Seles and that is the reason why her fan STABBED Seles,because he knew with Seles ,Graf coudn't achieve much. How can someone deny that Seles was on the verge of becoming the greatest player of all time.She was stabbed by a rival's fan to put a halt

yeah, yeah, whatever. in 91, when seles was winning all the slams but wimbledon, guess who beat her twice that year? it was steffi graf. by 1990, graf led seles 3-2. by 1991 graf again led seles 5-2. by 1992 graf again LED seles 6-3, before the stabbing incedent graf LED seles 6-4. even when seles returned and won AO'06 by thrashing every one, she still could not beat graf. so stop this what if bullshit about seles being better than graf cuz SHE IS NOT! oh yeah, how many wimbledon did seles win? was that a ZERO i hear? enuff said!

At the tender age of 19,Seles was stabbed.She had to deal with something that never happened any player in the history of tennis. After the stabbing,she was so tramatized taht she develped fear of people,the worl.She had to be dragged to psychiatrists,she suffered from sleeping and eating disorders.Did she deserve all these?What was her fault???THAht she was thE BEST?How can Graf's fan endorse her personal prbs but completely overlook all the trauma Seles had to undergo??To add to her prbs,around the same time,her father,coach,idol was dying of cancer. After Seles returned from Stabbing,she was beaten by players she was not used to losing a set against.She was not even 20% of the old Monica,neither physically and more importantly,not mentally. Graf is a great player but would have been far less far great has Seles not been stabbed. As for Henin,she is simply one of the best players of all time.Period.

oh yeah, fyi, before the stabbing, seles DID NOT lead graf in grand slams head to head. do your homework first pal. way back in '89, graf beat seles at the french and wimbledon. yup! so seles wasn't leading graf after all. boo-hoo. what a shame

anyhoos, justine is the best right now, and that matters the most.

Oh SJS, do you know anything about tennis? Do you even watch it? Bartoli, a relatively unknown ha! ha! ha! Well Federer crumbled to a relatively unknown Volandri (who?) and twice to Canas who hadn't played in two years. Serena Williams crumbled to an unknown a few years ago called TTSun. When you know what you are talking about, please get back to me! Other than that, just stick to reading the comments, you might learn somthing. Thanks.

At the tender age of 19,Seles was stabbed.She had to deal with something that never happened any player in the history of tennis. After the stabbing,she was so tramatized taht she develped fear of people,the worl.She had to be dragged to psychiatrists,she suffered from sleeping and eating disorders.Did she deserve all these?What was her fault???THAht she was thE BEST?How can Graf's fan endorse her personal prbs but completely overlook all the trauma Seles had to undergo??To add to her prbs,around the same time,her father,coach,idol was dying of cancer. After Seles returned from Stabbing,she was beaten by players she was not used to losing a set against.She was not even 20% of the old Monica,neither physically and more importantly,not mentally. Graf is a great player but would have been far less far great has Seles not been stabbed. As for Henin,she is simply one of the best players of all time.Period.

At the tender age of 19,Seles was stabbed.She had to deal with something that never happened any player in the history of tennis. After the stabbing,she was so tramatized taht she develped fear of people,the worl.She had to be dragged to psychiatrists,she suffered from sleeping and eating disorders.Did she deserve all these?What was her fault???THAht she was thE BEST?How can Graf's fan endorse her personal prbs but completely overlook all the trauma Seles had to undergo??To add to her prbs,around the same time,her father,coach,idol was dying of cancer. After Seles returned from Stabbing,she was beaten by players she was not used to losing a set against.She was not even 20% of the old Monica,neither physically and more importantly,not mentally. Graf is a great player but would have been far less far great has Seles not been stabbed. As for Henin,she is simply one of the best players of all time.Period.

Yes,I agree,Graf was supreme at Wimbledon,but how come she did not win more than one Slam in 92,92 and even lost 93 AO,but managed to wind the remaining 3 in 93,in Seles' absence. Lesser talented players like Conchita Martinez,Hingis,Sharapova have won Wimbly,Seles too would have managed it.Even she wudnt,she wud still have beenunstoppable at the other there Slams. Well,if Graf was that good in early 90s,what prompted her fan to STAB Seles??