Henin-Hardenne's name is in her game Belgian champ offers substance more than style By Jerry Magee UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER March 9, 2006 Pacific Life Open: Day 1 INDIAN WELLS – She's not the plain Jane of women's tennis, she's the plain Justine. And it doesn't have to be. Behold Justine Henin-Hardenne. As she presented herself yesterday at a media function offered as a herald of the Pacific Life Open, her skin was flawless, her features were nicely arranged and her grooming was immaculate. Across a room at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden at this “all-access hour,” a means by the WTA Tour of displaying a tournament's seeds, was Maria Sharapova. People with pads and pencils and minicams crowded three-deep around the table at which she was seated. She was stunning in a multicolored outfit. No more than a half-dozen visitors collected at Henin-Hardenne's table. She wore white. The Belgian woman refuses to adorn herself, not with her choice of clothing, not with makeup, not by pretending she is someone she is not. “You can't say I'm not natural,” she said with a smile. Her persona, however, would not seem to match what she has accomplished on the court. At 23, the native of Liege, Belgium, has captured three of the four Grand Slams, having scored at the French Open in 2003 and last year, at the U.S. Open in 2003 and at the Australian Open in 2004. Only a Wimbledon conquest has escaped her, and she has been a factor there, losing in the 2001 final to Venus Williams (in three sets) and reaching the semifinals in 2002 and '03. One could think that a player with Henin-Hardenne's history of success would be a celebrated figure, but her image is not a towering one. Not that she puts any value on how she is perceived. “I'm here because I'm playing tennis,” she said. “The most important part for me is what is happening on the court. Other players think what is happening off the court is more important, but that's not my case.” Her satisfactions come from stirring the emotions of those in her galleries. “When I go on my Web site and I see, 'You just made me cry' and 'You gave us a lot of emotion,' I have a feeling I'm doing a good job,” she said. But her image. While she said she is content with where she is in a marketing sense, she has little renown in this country. Too bland. A New York public relations executive, Harvey Bolgla of the firm DBA Public Relations, was invited to detail how he would market Henin-Hardenne. Bolgla, it should be noted, is knowledgeable concerning tennis. Among his accounts is the Acura Classic at the La Costa Resort and Spa, scheduled July 31-Aug. 6 this year. Should he be marketing Henin-Hardenne, Bolgla said he would not act to alter anything about her. “Her 'beauty' is her spirit,” he said. “She turned a whole lot of things around when she showed that being a power player was not necessarily a be-all and end-all.” Bolgla advanced the thought that Henin-Hardenne's deeds may have done a good deal in influencing Martina Hingis, a player of similar stature, to resume her career after three years away from tennis. “It's a personal choice if you want to be a celebrity in addition to a sports star,” Bolgla said. He imagined a conversation between two women at the Academy Awards. One woman asks, “What are you wearing?” The other asks, “How excellent was your acting?” “Justine is like an actress who pays all her attention to her craft and not her image,” said Bolgla. The No. 1 seed here, Henin-Hardenne said she attaches no importance to this. “I don't see myself as the favorite, no,” she said. “If people want to think of me that way, fine. I'm just trying to do my job and do the best I can.” To her, it is exciting that women's tennis has no dominant figure. “There's a lot of surprises, a lot of contrast,” she said. “It's good for the crowd, for the press, for the tour, everyone. You never know who is going to win.” You know, though, who is going to go out there, businesslike, and, inviting attention only with her game, perform as best she can. -- 寫的不錯阿 雖然我覺得henin真的可以好好行銷自己的.... 不過他真的是個運動員... --

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