Serena Finds Revenge Against Justine
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Apr 1, 2008 | Print | Email | Bookmark
Serena Williams found sweet revenge on Tuesday against top seed Justine Henin in Miami.
Williams booked herself a berth in the semifinal round of the Sony Ericsson Open after dropping only two games to the No. 1 player in the world.
It was an error-strewn performance by Henin, who could barely keep her shots inside the lines. She managed to save two match points before her fifth double fault gave Serena the 6-2, 6-0 victory.
Headed into the match, the two former Grand Slam champions had met twelve times, splitting the wins 6-6. Justine won all but one of their four encounters in 2007, including the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Her one slip was in the final at Miami last year when Williams stormed back to win 0-6, 7-5, 6-3.
At the moment, Henin and Williams are the closest thing toward a rivalry that women’s tennis has to offer.
“I think we have a great rivalry,” said Serena on Monday after reaching the quarterfinals.
“I mean, we definitely bring out some of the best tennis in each other, and she tends to play really well against me. Probably better against me than other opponents, so it’s definitely a good match for me.”
Henin failed to bring her “A” game to the court today in Miami, but for Serena, it was an opportunity to showcase near perfect tennis. She kept the unforced errors down and won 70% of the points on her first serve.
Serena will face the winner of tonight’s match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams in the semifinals.
Will.I.AM | Apr 1, 2008 | Reply
Yay for Serena!!! She deserved that win because Justine had her number last year! However, I hope that one day they can both bring their A game to a match. That would truly be interesting.
Dapxin | Apr 1, 2008 | Reply
I saw just the last set of this game on a choppy internet stream.
The quality of Serena’s swings were ferocious.
Its a day JH needs to forget, but heck, the rivalry is a good thing…
Aaress | Apr 1, 2008 | Reply
I don’t think this will be a loss Justine will forget for a while, unfortunately.
Her season has hardly gone according to plan and if she can’t quickly turn her game around, she’ll be in trouble ranking-wise by Wimbledon.
Nothing Justine did today worked against Serena - she was simply too good. It will be interesting to see if Venus gets past Kuznetsova tonight because given the way Serena is playing, we could FINALLY be in for a thrilling Williams sisters match.