With a very abrupt decision, Top seed Justine Henin says good-bye to tennis, putting an end to a very short but successful career.
On Wednesday, Henin gave her official announcement. We all know her game was a little bit sloppy lately and had a rough patch at every tournament since a couple of months ago, but that still doesn’t look like a good reason to quit playing tennis for good. These bad times have no comparison to all her victories, starting with the 7 Grand Slam Titles she owns.
The announcement has shocked everyone, since nobody could expect something like this just 2 weeks before the French Open. It seems the Belgian player didn’t want to take the risk, given the awful losing streak she’s been going through. But seriously, who retires at 25?!
Most tennis betting fans are probably not going to be so affected by the news, because everyone that has been watching Justin Henin lately knows the betting odds on her for the next tennis tournament were not going to be that good anyway. However, this makes me feel upset as a devoted tennis fan who admires real athletes. What kind of pro tennis player chickens out like that and prefers to hide forever instead of working hard and re-gaining that performance that put her at the top in the first place? They say it’s better to leave professional sports when you’re enjoying your peak of glory, but this is ridiculous. She had at least 10 years left of good play to come, it’s far too soon to give up. And I’m pretty sure she will regret the decision eventually.
But oh, well. This is how the sports world moves, and new talented female tennis players will rise to fill that empty spot the current #1 tennis player of the world is about to abandon.
Source: AP
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on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Tennis.
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May 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
It is a sad day in the world of tennis when the world ranked number one announces her retirement. Justine Henin has long been inspiring to tennis enthusiasts like me. I read that she was going to try to win another French Open tennis tournament to break her own record. I was on the Tennis Channel’s website when I saw the news. I could not beleive that she retired.