http://0rz.tw/2d2Qu Henin Proves She's No. 1 Wednesday, 4 July, 2007 Justine Henin won the heavyweight championship of SW19, finally defeating Serena Williams with a knock-out blow to reach the semi-finals 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. In the end it was Williams, the physically more imposing of the pair, who was punching above her weight, unable to counter the metronomic consistency of Belgium's very own pocket rocket. There is, as they say in London, "previous" between these two. Back in 2003, they faced each other in the semi-finals of the French Open. Henin, a French speaker, was obviously the crowd's darling while Williams had antagonised the Parisians by calling the lines herself as the match warmed up in the third set. And then all hell broke loose. Henin held her hand up to indicate she was not ready just as Williams was about to serve. The American continued with her service action, walloped the ball into the net and then asked the umpire to play a let. He had not seen Henin's signal and maintained that the first serve stood, it was a fault and Williams must play on. Williams was furious, the crowd jeered and whistled and Henin stood quietly by, waited for the fuss to die down and then went on to win. Afterwards Williams was in tears and accused the victor of "lying and fabricating" her way to the win. That, though, was a long time ago and, since then, the two women have met on many occasions and each time have tried to distance themselves from the memory. They have, they say, a great deal of respect for each other. They are, they say, completely over the little altercation in Paris. There is, they say, no bad blood between them. You could have fooled us. On the very first point of this encounter, Williams hit the ball straight at the Belgian. There was much flapping of rackets, waving of hands and the other usual signals to indicate copious apologies but, even so, the point had been made. Henin's card had been marked. You don't mess with Serena – not here, not now. It comes as no surprise to hear that the youngest of the Williams clan is a part-time actress. Drama, it seems, runs in the blood. Arriving on court in her three-quarter length warm-up pants, she had the left leg rolled up to the knee to show off the massive bandage on her calf, a legacy of the muscle spasm that felled her in the previous round. Just to add a little more medical excitement, she also had her left hand heavily strapped. Her father Richard said she had hurt it during her previous game and was now having problems hitting her backhand. He stressed that his girl was not at her physical peak. Unfortunately, he forgot to mention this to his daughter. It matters not to Williams whether she is ranked number one in the world or No. 101, whether she is the reigning champion or whether she is injured, out of sorts and playing badly – she believes that she is the best player on the tour. In her mind, she is always the number one and it is just the rankings computer that has got it wrong. Such belief won her the Australian Open title in January and has dug her out of many a hole in the past. As she started to make inroads into Henin's defences in the second set, the swagger returned to Williams' gait. There were moments, though, when she would get it wrong, when she would be caught out by one of Henin's inch-perfect passing shots. Then Henin struck. Where Hantuchova failed to make the injured Williams run in the previous round, Henin went for the jugular. Actually, she went for the gammy leg, and as the match wore on, she pushed the American around, she brought her in and then she sent her scuttling back. Williams growled, she roared and she fought but she could not win. Whereas Williams may believe that she is the world number one player, Justine Henin knows that the title really belongs to her. And that makes all the difference in the world. Written by Alix Ramsay -- 上班族要貼文章很累啦 別叫我翻譯 標題很棒 最後一段也很棒 請仔細閱讀 哈哈... --

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