Henin Reaches 24th Consecutive French Open Victory

Written by: Michael Johnson on 31st May 2010

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Henin Reaches 24th Consecutive French Open Victory |

Deciding set, down love-40 and already 2 games down, Justine Henin had to find a way to hold to stay in the match. If she was going to go down to her opponent, Maria Sharapova, she decided it would be on her terms.

Henin saved her first break point by exercising more patience on a 16-shot rally after Sharapova went for too much on a backhand return. Justine then forced the issue by attacking the net on two consecutive points to hit volley winners to bring it back to deuce. Down another break point, she came up with a big service winner to force another deuce. A few points later, she held serve in the third game, which provided her with the spark she needed to win the match 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Justine’s shots had more purpose and power for the remainder of the set as she was firing shots in the corners, making Sharapova look helpless.

Henin came out firing on all cylinders the previous evening as she had Sharapova on a string in the first set. Henin cleverly disguised two backhand drop shot winners, which left Sharapova a few steps away from running them down. Her forehand and backhand wore both on target as she was able to run Sharapova all over the court. Sharpova was frustrated early as Henin took the first set 6-2.

As the wind picked up and the light drizzle became heavier, Henin started to struggle with her serve. Sharapova earned a break and started to attack Justine’s forehand. Justine started missing her forehand and after sending a shot long, Sharapova took the second set 6-3, breaking Henin’s run of 40 consecutive sets at the French Open.

Resuming the match after it was suspended the night before because of darkness, Sharapova came out aggressive and it paid off early. Unable to maintain the momentum for the entire set proved to be costly, as Henin stepped up her level of play to dominate the second half of the third set to win her 24^th consecutive French Open match. Not all is lost for Sharapova – her shoulder did not appear to be a problem and now she can fly back to Los Angeles to watch her boyfriend, Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic, play in the NBA Finals.

Topics: Break Point, Consecutive Points, Darkness, Firing On All Cylinders, First Break, Forehand, French Open, Justine Henin, Light Drizzle, Maria Sharapova, Momentum, Open Victory, Opponent, Patience, Remainder, Service Winner, Sharpova, Target, Third Game, Volley