Justine Henin Rallies to Beat Golovin for Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Title
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Oct 7, 2007 | Print |
Tatiana Golovin downed two top seeds, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anna Chakvetadze, this week on her way to her second consecutive final at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
For a while on Sunday, it appeared that she would score her third top 10 victory of the week with a straight sets win over world No. 1 Justine Henin.
But that was not to be today in Stuttgart. After blowing the first set 6-2, Henin stormed back to take her eighth crown of the year 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
It was a bittersweet ending for the young Frenchwoman. After standing at the altar twice, Golovin is still the perennial bridesmaid. Last season Nadia Petrova rallied to win the title in the second set tiebreak 6-3, 7-6(4).
The momentum began to swing in the world number one’s direction after Henin captured a crucial break in the fifth game of the second set to take a 3-2 lead.
It was not Henin’s most dazzling performance, but she continued to step up her game, and more important, cut down on unforced errors as the match progressed.
On her first match point on Golovin’s serve at 5-1, a lob on the run by Golovin went long, handing Justine Henin her first Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title.
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Nick | Oct 7, 2007 | Reply
Tatiana played great and I think by the end of the second her energy was out while Justine was still picking up.
Great match from both!
Hako | Oct 7, 2007 | Reply
Justine looked pretty flat in the early goings, but Tatiana came out firing, I wondered if Justine could dig down and win. Justine didn’t have her ‘A’ game, but she can wear her opponents down and dismantle them….similar to Nadal at times. She is playing like she intends to be remembered as “on of the greats”.
Aaress | Oct 7, 2007 | Reply
Hako, at the rate Henin is going, she will go down in history as one of tennis’ greats. I fully expect her to pass up her biggest active competition - Venus and Serena - next year. Take a look at these stats.
Grand Slams
Serena - 8
Justine - 7
Venus - 6
Overall Titles
Serena - 28
Justine - 37
Venus - 36
Weeks at No. 1
Serena - 57
Justine - 86
Venus - 11
Based on those stats alone, it is easy to see Justine Henin ousting both Williams sisters as the most dominant player of this generation. Her other advantage is that she plays more and when it comes to Grand Slams, she normally brings her A game to the court. Out of the last eight majors, Henin was in six of the finals.
Lindsay Davenport trounces all three in the weeks at No. 1 and overall titles departments, but she came up short when it came to Grand Slams.