Henin battles knee injury in hunt for more grand slam titles Richard Jago in Dubai Tuesday February 26, 2008 The Guardian Justine Henin said yesterday that it was "a big mistake" to have competed in the Australian Open last month with a knee injury, raising another question about the world No1's future. Henin, returning to defend her two-year unbeaten record in the Dubai Open, has long been mindful of an old virus which may have remained in her system. Now she revealed that she went to Melbourne with discomfort in her right knee and returned after losing in a quarter-final feeling so much worse that she endured three weeks of inactivity and cortisone injections. Many people regard cortisone as a career-shortening risk but then risk-taking has been an important part of Henin's coping strategy for some time, not least in developing an increasingly adventurous style of play. "I shouldn't have played in Australia but I did a big mistake because it takes a few weeks to recover," she said. "I could not play for three weeks and had to have cortisone injections, and to play with pain is not that easy mentally either. I was feeling already a bit injured when I left for Australia but you always think it's going to get better." Henin was concerned not to suggest that this was why she lost to Maria Sharapova, saying that the Russian was the best player there. Her concerns were with the future and not the past. "It's a chronic problem with the knee and it may come back. I have to pay attention. The schedule is difficult and, if I want to stay on a few more years, I have to be more careful." Henin is 26 this year. She won her first title at 17 and 10 years is said to be the likely span of a top-line player these days. She is well aware of it. "If I want to be able to play a few more years it's going to be [by] moving forward and going to the net. I'm not that tall and I'm not that strong, so I need to be physically at my best level all the time," she said. "I have to play my game all the time and my game is attacking the ball and taking some risks. I always move forward in my life - this is the same." It applies to life off court, too, where rapprochement with her family after the end of her marriage may remove another emotionally exhausting ingredient in her life. The week before last in Antwerp her father watched her play for the first time in more than seven years. "It's another step," she said. "Now we can live together. What happened in these seven years happened - and we have to respect that. We all grow up a lot in that experience." For Henin tennis has often been an escape and she will be glad to get going again tomorrow after a first-round bye - even though it may be against Nadia Petrova, a former world No3 from Russia. == Ju的傷還真不少@@ 據我知道已經發展成慢性炎症的就有肩膀、膝蓋和腳踝 似乎都無法治癒,只能靠保持體能和規劃好賽程來避免再發作吧 Anyway,Ju加油! --

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