The Hindu : Sport : Spirited Henin sails smoothly Important results

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Spirited Henin sails smoothly Important results

Nirmal Shekar

The Belgian prevails over Russian Elena Vesnina to make fourth round

London: Is happiness the key to athletic achievement? Is inner peace the springboard to sporting greatness? Would Zen masters have — had they chosen to take time off from their meditation to pick up a pair of boxing gloves or a tennis racquet — outdone a Muhammad Ali or a Pete Sampras?

Justine Henin, the best player in women’s tennis, might answer in the affirmative to each of these questions. She believes that her present positive emotional state is the key to her current form and success. She is almost certain that her happy frame of mind is the secret behind her all-conquering recent run that fetched her a third straight French Open title (fourth overall) and saw her being anointed as a clear favourite in the 121st Wimbledon championships.

Henin, aged 25 and world ranked No.1, almost effortlessly — unless you count the trek back to the dressing room and on to the court again because of a rain delay as serious effort — sailed into the fourth round of the women’s singles with a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Elena Vesnina of Russia on Friday. Of course, you can’t be unhappy about that result after spending just 52 minutes on court to make the last 16.

The question

But, then, the chicken-or-egg question is this: does happiness make way for achievement or does achievement make you happy?

This much is certain: if the former were true, quite a few athletes would have barely achieved the greatness that they did. You hardly needed the help of the new millennium cutting edge medical equipment such as the fMRI to have got a reasonably good idea of the mental state of a frothing-in-the-mouth, tantrum-throwing John McEnroe when the New Yorker was chewing up the grass in these parts with his swinging leftie serve and crisp volleys.

Nor can you be too sure if Van Gogh was a happy man when he painted The Starry Night or the Sunflowers, or that Friedrich Nietzsche was in a cheerful state when he penned Thus Spake Zarathustra — perhaps they were in a state of delirium but certainly not happy as we ordinary mortals know happiness.

Yet, for Henin, happiness does it; and who can argue with her. This is a woman who has been through a lot and has courageously used adversity as a stepping stone to high achievement.

A broken marriage, an emotional reconciliation with her siblings and her father… all at the start of the year when she chose to skip the Australian Open.

Amazingly, on returning to the tour, Henin picked up titles at Doha, Dubai and Warsaw before completing a French hat-trick for her sixth Grand Slam title.

Wimbledon is the only one missing in her impressive collection. And her form during the week has been as devastating as that of the Atlantic depression which has left several parts of this country reeling under hostile sheets of water.

“I could do very good things during my first three matches,” said Henin who has lost just 11 games in two hours and eight minutes on court this week. “Especially today, I am very happy with the way I played, very aggressive, very consistent.”

Henin was up 6-1, 3-2 when play was stopped because of rain. There was a 10-minute period of resistance from Vesnina when play resumed but the world No.1 was soon back in the locker room.

On court, few women are quite as versatile as Henin is and she displays remarkable tactical nous when pushed — which has not happened here so far this year.

Hard-won enjoyment

Who can deny Mademoiselle Henin her hard-won enjoyment? In recent times, Henin’s triumphs over adversity have taken my mind back to a new French word for bravery coined by the unsuccessful Socialist

Presidential candidate Segolene Royal — bravitude.

While the actual French word for bravery is bravoure, Mme Royal said that bravitude is something that stood for the ‘fullness of bravery.’

Ah, fullness of bravery. Henin’s life and career are all about the fullness of bravery.

Seeds toppled

In a dramatic centre court marathon, Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia, world ranked 64, outlasted Fernando Gonzalez, seeded five, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6. The Chilean, who had lost to Roger Federer in the Australian Open final last January, turned things around early in the decider and was leading 5-2 before Tipasarevic stormed back to pip him at the post in the third round match that lasted three hours and 35 minutes.

Also out of men’s singles is Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, seeded 15. Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, world ranked 39, got past Ljubicic 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

Later in the evening, former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain ousted the ninth seeded American James Blake 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 while in women’s singles Laura Granville of the United States, ranked No.77, stunned the former champion and ninth seed, Martina Hingis, 6-4, 6-2.

At the time of writing, Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm were leading James Auckland of Britain and Stephen Huss of Australia 7-6, 7-6, 3-6 in a second round match.

Important Result

(Prefix denotes seeding)

Men: singles: third round: Janko Tipsarevic (Serb) bt 5-Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6; Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) bt 15-Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3; 13-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt 21-Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 1-6, 6-4, 7 -6 (5), 6-4; 20-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Esp) bt 9-James Blake (U.S.) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Women’s singles: Third round: 1-Justine Henin (Bel) bt Elena Vesnina (Rus) 6-1, 6-3; 15-Patty Schnyder (Sui) bt 24-Alona Bondarenko (Ukr) 6-4, 3-6, 8-6; 3-Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt 25-Lucie Safarova (Cze) 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-2; 31-Mich aella Krajicek (Ned) bt 8-Anna Chakvetadze (Rus) 7-6(8), 6-7(5), 6-2; 18-Marion Bartoli (Fra) bt 16-Shahar Peer (Isr) 6-3, 6-2; 7-Serena Williams (U.S.) bt Milagros Sequera (Ven) 6-1, 6-0; Laura Granville (U.S.) bt 9-Martina Hingis (Sui) 6-4, 6-2; 10-Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) bt 19-Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

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