Did the Belgians get it right? http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4494561&name=tennis Tuesday, September 22, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry Posted by Stephen Tignor, TENNIS.com This is getting confusing. We've just spent two years hearing that Venus and Serena Williams did it the right way all along. They took time off, developed off-court interests and played only when they were healthy. The result was that even as two other Grand Slam champions, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, burned out and quit the game in their mid-20s, Venus and Serena continued to pad their major-title totals after more than a decade on the road. That piece of now-conventional wisdom may be in the process of being overturned. Clijsters has come back after two years away, and in just her third tournament she beat both of the Williamses on her way to winning the U.S. Open. Now, her countrywoman Henin says she's ready to do the same thing. Henin is the more accomplished of the Belgians -- she owns seven majors to Clijsters' two. Henin is remembered as the most versatile of modern WTA players, but she was also known as a "finely tuned engine" that could misfire at any time. At 5-foot-6, she had to take risks and hit all-out to hang with her bigger rivals. Sometimes those risks didn't pay off, and it may be a while before the engine finds its top gear. But success will come sooner or later. Does anyone think Henin can't handle the current No. 1, Dinara Safina? Henin won their first five meetings without dropping a set; her loss to Safina in Berlin in 2008 was one of the triggers for her to call it quits in the first place -- you could almost hear her saying, "If I can't beat the likes of Dinara Safina …" Henin isn't coming back to take those kinds of defeats again. And though she never completely dominated the sport, she was a steady winner, taking home at least one Slam each season from 2003 to '07. Chances are, now that she's hungry again, she'll start a new streak in 2009. If she does, what will we say? That it was the Belgians, rather than the Williamses, who had it right all along? That the way to get the most out of your career is to go hard, burn out, say you're retiring, and come back stronger once you get bored? No -- but what we should do is stop insisting that the Williamses have been helped by their "off-court interests." The reason Venus and Serena succeeded is that they've conducted their careers on their terms at all times, from skipping the juniors to concentrating on Slams rather than rankings. If Henin follows Clijsters back onto the Grand Slam podium, the Belgians will have done the same thing, even if their own strategy for success -- retire, unretire -- came about by accident. There is no "right way" to become a WTA champion, and there is no one role model for how to manage your career. What's important is that the return of Henin is good news for everyone in tennis. The press gets a story and the WTA gets a star back. Best of all, young players on the way up get to see a woman who, from her flyaway one-handed backhand to her inside-out forehand, can do it all on the court. That's what being a role model in tennis is all about. Tennis -- 只是篇探討的文章 老實說從HENIN退休後我就沒有認真看過女網的比賽 who can beat the williams? 從我第一次看到她們拿下大滿貫到現在都已經過了10年 不是否定其他選手的努力 但現在網壇上的選手總是少了些什麼 再說威廉絲姐妹只是強力網球就沒意思了 現在選手不夠強力能生存嗎 其他人比起她們少了細膩的技術和心理素質 皆無傷痛下 有誰可以擊敗她們 maybe sharapova? 沒有想到 又重來一次 henin再度登上挑戰者的位置 準備挑戰現在網壇的強者 我不會說henin可以輕易的稱霸 至少她的心理素質可以讓她面對每一個強者 可以看到單手反拍重現江湖XD 對我們都是種福氣 p.現在wta上的照片也太時尚了些 http://tinyurl.com/lszyvs 請拉到最後 -- Every game, every match. I know that I've been consistent despite injuries and some tough times, so I've got nothing to prove, except to myself.” < Justine Henin > --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 60.251.234.73