Henin refuses to cave after rough start

MELBOURNE, Australia

The utter stress on Justine Henin's face was palpable and she was moving as if she had chains on her legs.

Completely exhausted after a hardcore offseason training program that she put herself through in order to be able to perform at a top level again, a brutal first tournament in Brisbane where she was forced to play nearly two and half hours in an emotionally exhausting loss to fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters in the final, and then a two-hour-plus win over No. 5 seed Elena Dementieva on Wednesday, it appeared as if her fairy tale Australian Open comeback was about to be tossed into the recycling bin.

Young Russian Alisa Kleybanova, a big-bodied pure ball striker was tearing the cover off the ball and was dominating Henin on Hisense Arena on a muggy Friday afternoon. The Russian got off 6-3, 3-1 lead and was holding two break points. Henin simply could not find a way into the match.

“My body suffered a lot,” Henin said. “It's not used to it anymore. I didn't have 48 hours. It's been quite short to recover. I slept terribly. When I woke up this morning, I felt it's going to be tough today because I'm tired. I was ready mentally, emotionally and physically and knew it would be difficult.”

But the seven-time Grand Slam champion remembered what she was in Melbourne for -- to win the title, which doesn't consist of a scrappy win or two, but seven extremely challenging contests. She knew that she has a world more experience than the 27th seed, the know-how and the weapons. Suddenly, she was full of energy, scooting around from side to side and her power and ability to draw the slow-moving Kleybanova off the court returned. She made one more final push, and what a shove it was, as she won 11 out of the next 13 games and came away with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory.

“I just tried to stay calm,” she said. “I just tried to wait for things to get better, and that paid off. That was the most important thing. If you get crazy at that time, I mean ... I just tried to play point after point, be focused on every moment, even if it's not easy. Proved again that that's probably a good attitude to have. But sometimes it's OK, and sometimes you lose.”

So much air space is devoted to Henin's high-variety game and for good reason: She's had more shots in her arsenal than any other player. But that doesn't mean that she'll always deliver, not when she's tired and all those biting backhand slices begin to float, her serves sit up, her forehand has little depth. The 27-year-old is a legendary player, but guile and shot selection will only get you so far against a scorching attack. Execution is what it's all about, and for the first set and half, Henin wasn't executing.

But Henin sensed Kleybanova would have a lapse and that if she breathed deeply enough, that muscles would loosen up. They did and then she was able to unleash the stunning amount of nuclear power that rises from her small frame, when she cracks the ball as hard as anyone off the ground. Her crosscourt forehand raced through the court and she bent low and whipped flat one-handed backhands that had the Russian backing into the wall.

“It's always good to win this kind of match because I came back from nowhere,” she said. “I wasn't feeling the energy enough to be able to compete at my level. I've been patient. Slowly but surely it was better. "

Unseeded, Henin has one of the most difficult draws of her career. In the fourth round, she'll face the red-hot Belgian teen Yanina Wickmayer, who hasn't lost a match this season.

Fortunately, she won't have to face Kim Clijsters, who suffered the worst loss of her career in a 6-0, 6-1 shellacking at the hands of Russia's Nadia Petrova. The U.S. Open champion has played 555 matches since she came on tour in 1999 and has never been as flat or confused as she was against Petrova, unable to work even the most simple combinations. Petrova played an excellent, forceful match, but Clijsters was on life support form the first ball.

Even though Clijsters is gone, Wickmayer can run like a deer. If Henin manages to survive the teen, and then possibly the revived Petrova, she'll have felt like she already won the title, even though there will surely be two more stiff tests ahead.

“It's pretty strange, pretty crazy,” Henin said. “I've never played Yanina in the past. When I retired, she was just coming. But she proved with her results last year that she is in top form. Again, this week she's fighting a lot. So I know it's going to be a tough match. It's a bit disappointing that we're all in the same part. In another way, Belgian tennis proves that we are back, and that's a very good feeling.”

It's about as big of a mountain as she'll ever climb, attempting to win a major just a month into her comeback after a year and half off due to burnout. But that's just how she likes it.

“It's a big challenge to come back" she said. “And I think I love challenges. That's the way I am. I cannot live like normally. I need always to push myself and to push the limits back.”