Justing Henin was born on June 1, 1982 in Liège, and belong to the Walloon (French-speaking) region of Belgium. Her father is José Henin and mother is Françoise Rosière. Her mom was French and a history teacher by profession. She has two elder brothers and a younger sister, her elder sister died in a car accident before the birth of Henin.
She has a passion for tennis and her mother routinely took her to different venues of France to watch French Open tournaments. In 1992, she watched the game of her idol Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, though Steffi defeated in the game, Henin was impressed by the match and told her mother, "One day I will play here and I will win."
But soon she was shattered when her mother died of intestinal cancer when she was just 12 years old. She was not so happy with her biological father and her coach Carlos Rodriguez became her father figure ever since the death of her mother.
Henin left home at the age of 17 and went on to live with her boyfriend Pierre-Yves Hardenne, they got married on November 16, 2002, in the Château de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne, but marriage did not last for eternity and she announced her separation with her husband on January of 2007 and divorced later that year. From 2003, she appeared on court with name Justine Henin-Hardenne but soon after her separation she assumed her maiden name Justin Henin.
Tennis Career
Henin was under the guidance of Coach Carlos Rodriguez since she was 14 years old. Her initial success came when she won junior girl’s singles title at the French Open in 1997. As soon as she started her senior tennis career, she was successful in reaching to late rounds of the tournaments and won five International Tennis Federation tournaments by the end of 1998.
Soon she joined the bandwagon of Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour in May 1999 as she got the opportunity to join the team through wild card entry in Belgian Open at Antwerp and became the fifth player to win her debut WTA tour event.
She made a significant improvement on her game and rose up becoming a tough competitor in the court. In 2001, she reached to the women’s singles semifinal of the French Open and Wimbledon. The year ended with three titles to her name and ranking her in 7th position.
In 2002, Henin make her way to four WTA finals and won two of them. Her win at a Tier I tournament German Open was highly remarkable as she has defeated Jennifer Capriati in a semifinal and Serena Williams in the final who were then number two and number five ranked players.
Year 2003 proved to be a breakthrough year for her tennis career as she won two Grand Slam titles. She won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open defeating compatriot Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-4 in the final, en route she defeated top ranked Serena Williams in three sets. She won her second Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open again defeating Clijsters in the final 7-5, 6-1 and defeated Jennifer Capriati in semifinal. After her successive win, she replaced Clijsters as the top ranked female singles player on October 19, 2003 and was named the International Tennis Federation's women's singles World Champion for 2003.
Session 2004 begin with an impressive success at the Australian Open where she beat Kim Clijsters 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. During the initial months of 2004, her health was badly infected by a strain of cytomegalovirus and an immune system problem, she fights back her health problem and soon come up with nerve in August and won the women's singles gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, defeating Amélie Mauresmo of France in the final 6-3, 6-3 in final and Anastasia Myskina in semifinal.
At the U.S. Open, she could not defend her title and lost the game to Nadia Petrova in the fourth round, this defeat led to the fall of ranking from #1 position. She then withdrew herself from rest matches of that year in order to improve her fitness and recuperate from her weakness but sadly she fractured her kneecap in a practice session on December 2004 and she could not start new session in 2005 early as expected.
She return back to competition on March 25, 2005 at the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami but lost to Maria Sharapova in a quarterfinal. But soon she won clay court Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina and two more clay court title before the start of French Open. She won the French Open title at Roland Garros defeating Mary Pierce, 6-1, 6-1, en route she defeated Kuznetsova in the fourth round, Sharapova in quarterfinal, and Petrova in semifinal. In the same year, TENNIS Magazine choose her among the 40 other greatest players of Tennis era and placed her in 31st position. In November again, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships, she was named the inaugural winner of the Whirlpool 6th Sense Player of the Year.
Henin won practicing tournament for 2006 Australian Open defeating U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in a semifinal 6-3, 6-1, before defeating Francesca Schiavone in the final 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. But in Australian Open, she upsets Lindsay Davenport in quarterfinal and Maria Sharapova in semifinal but lost against third ranked Amélie Mauresmo in the final by 6-1, 2-0. She was back on court again and won her second title of 2006 at a Tier II event in Dubai, defeating Sharapova 7-5, 6-2, this was the third time she has won the Dubai title, including the win in 2003 and 2004.
At the French Open in June, Henin created history by winning the title successively for the third time in four years. She defeated second seeded Clijsters 6-3, 6-2 in semifinal and then defeated Kuznetsova in the final 6-4, 6-4. With this win, Henin became the first French Open champion to defend her title successfully since Steffi Graf in 1996.
At the U.S. Open tournament, Henin reached the final but was defeated by Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in the final. That year she reached the finals of all four Grand Slams in a calendar year, which again was a record after Hingis in 1997. Henin then reached the final of WTA Tour Championships defeating Sarapova 6-2, 7-6(5) in a semifinal and won the title for the first time in her career by beating Mauresmo 6-4 6-3 in the final.
After winning several prestigious titles and creating history in the world of tennis she bid adieu to her favorite sports in early 2008 although she was a top ranked woman tennis player that time.
