by Matt Cronin, tennisreporters.net

Updated: May 16, 2008, 12:50 PM EST 6 comments

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Justine Henin didn't hail from the mighty U.S., nor the tradition-laden nation of France, but came from a French-speaking city in tiny Belgium, who's most notable player prior to her and countrywoman Kim Clijsters was the obscure Filip Dewulf.

In the most shocking exit since 11-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg hung up his racket at the relatively young age of 26 in 1982, Henin retired Wednesday, just a week and a half before she was supposed to attempt to win her fourth straight Roland Garros crown.

Only 25, seven-time Slam champion Henin said she was mentally toast and no longer has any of her vaunted fight left in her.

"I have been driving my career based on an emotion, but I didn't feel that emotion anymore since (last year's season-ending championships in) Madrid. At Madrid I felt I had reached the climax of my career," said Henin, who bested Maria Sharapova in a three-set classic there. "I had thought about taking a break, but in the end I didn't think this was the right decision."

For the most part over her nine-year career, Henin has come off as a brutally honest and thoughtful person, so it's hard to doubt her reasoning. If she says she no longer has the desire to go all out, that's more than likely what drove her to quit, even though contending with a knee injury this year and a tricky virus on and off since 2004 couldn't have been easy.

But no other player drove her out of the sport, and the field had not caught up to her yet — as evidenced by her incredible 2007, where she won a career high 10 titles including Roland Garros and the U.S. Open and ended the season on a 26-match winning streak.

Making her name

Along with the Williams sisters, Henin defined mental toughness amongst her peers and could have been on her way to the title of best player of her generation. But now that she's waving goodbye, that moniker will likely go to Serena. The younger Williams sister has fewer titles than Henin (31 to 41) but one more Slam (eight to seven). Plus, Serena has won every major once and Henin failed to do so, stopped time and time again at Wimbledon — most shockingly last year, when Marion Bartoli pulled the upset.

Boasting a high-variety game, Henin appeared to have the power to grab at least one title at the All England Club, but she admitted Thursday that she never truly believed.

"Winning Wimbledon would not have made me any happier," said Henin, who also won the 2004 Olympic gold medal in Athens. "I didn't feel I was capable of winning there (Wimbledon). I stopped before Roland Garros because I asked myself if I could produce a better Roland Garros than last year and I realized I couldn't."

Henin, who also had a brief rivalry with Clijsters, came into the spotlight in part thanks to a duel with Serena Williams, whose four-Slam run she had stopped at Roland Garros in one of the most dramatic contests ever played at the major.

"Serena doesn't feel comfortable that I think I can beat her," Henin said in an interview with TennisReporters.net in 2003. "It's hard for her that a player like me not so strong and tall and can beat these types of players. She knows I believe in my chances and she doesn't like it, that's for sure."

Who would have given the tiny Justine a chance at No. 1 after her mother passed away when she was just 12, or after she split with her father and brothers when she was just 17? Henin carried a boatload of emotional baggage on her shoulders, which explains why many times she came off as being cold and calculating. She could be very engaging and pleasant off court, but had a tough shell.

"I always had this fight within myself," she said. "All these things that I lost — my mom and my family problems — it didn't help me inside that I didn't let it out. But I know that I became a great fighter. But when you live with these things so long, it doesn't help you."

Reaching the top

The tennis world saw Henin grow up a great deal since her Slam coming-out party in 2003, both off court and on. She married Belgian Pierre-Yves Hardenne that year and said that she had lost the "real me" prior to her engagement.

That relationship did not last, as the two got divorced early in 2007, which forced her to skip the Australian Open. But a few months later, she reconciled with her siblings (but not her estranged father), a move that she said reinvigorated her emotionally and allowed her to go on her most dominant swing on court.

If there was once constant in her life, it was her longtime coach, Carlos Rodriguez, who always believed in her and steered the warship Henin for 12 years. She called him a father figure, a friend and brother all wrapped into one. Rodriguez was a bit of a perfectionist, criticizing her every error, but he also believed in her prospects like no one else.

"I'm more mature and comfortable," said Henin. "He said you have the possibilities to be No. 1 someday and I didn't believe him because I didn't have confidence in myself. Now I have confidence in myself because he told me every day I could win Grand Slams and be No. 1. He was right."

Henin reached remarkable heights even when it appeared that the bar was set too high for her. Take the 2007 U.S. Open, her 7th and final Slam crown, when she beat both Serena and Venus to go on to win the title. She became the first player to best both Williams sisters at a major and did so at America's Slam, of all places, where former champions Serena and Venus had played some of their best tennis.

"The Williamses dominated and maybe they will later but we have to be prepared to go to the big fight against the champions," Rodriguez said after the win in New York. "That's the most beautiful thing is to do that. I tell Justine that you have the chance to be the champion of the champions; the player who wins the Slams multiple times; to win 10 to 13 Slams. She can do it, but it's up to her. If she wants to, she has everything to do it."

But she didn't want to go for double digits in Slams, as she was more aware than anyone that her gritty, undercutting game requires maximum concentration. She tried to go through the motions during the first five months of the season, but without her intensity, she looked fragile, crushed by Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open, by Serena in Miami and then last week, Dinara Safina rolled over her in Berlin.

Make no mistake: this is a huge loss for women's tennis, which seems to be shedding great players with interesting personalities faster than a leaping Henin inside-out forehand. Since the legendary Monica Seles limped off the tour in 2003 (she officially retired two months ago), only one great player with a standout personality has emerged — Sharapova. During that time period, the WTA has lost three other intruguing Slam champions who cannot easily be replaced — Martina Hingis, Anastasia Myskina and Clijsters.

But with her once seemingly unquenchable fire dosed, Justine had nowhere to go but home.

"This is the end of a child's dream," she said. "This is a definitive decision. Those who know me know it is serious. I thought long about this. I started thinking about it late last year. I was at the end of the road. I leave with my head held high. Maybe people will think I'm still young, but in life there are no rules...There is a page that turns today and I feel no regrets. On the contrary, it's more like a release, more like a relief, more of a look toward the future."