Henin, who was playing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2007, slumped to a three set 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat in the fourth round. Stosur’s victory snapped Henin’s winning streak at 24-straight matches at Roland Garros, which was the 3rd longest in history. Had she won today, Henin would have equaled Monica Seles’ streak of 25 matches.
Earlier in the day, world number one Serena Williams progressed to the quarterfinals after a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory over Shahar Peer. Afterward, Serena agreed that after a few rough opening rounds, she has finally found her footing on the clay.
“I felt really consistent today,” Williams said. “I felt like I was hitting the right shots and the balls were going right. It’s always good to feel that way. I actually felt like I could play and move better.”
Now that Henin is out, Williams will look forward to facing Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals, a player who she leads 3-1 in their head-to-head record. Their last meeting was in the fourth round at the Australian Open in January, where Williams ousted Stosur 6-4, 6-2 en route to the title.
I’m absolutely delighted with Stosur’s win. I will always consider Justine a cheater (I don’t understand why the French crowd supports her after her actions with Amelie Mauresmo, who has always been a class act) and will not forget 2002 with Serena.
I’m delighted with Stousur’s win too.
But not delighted in getting your email announcing it in the headlines before I even had a chance to see it on TV.
I will be canceling my subscription as soon as I finish this email so it doesn’t happen again.
In the past I have just avoided reading any emails from you till after I have watched any tennis programs I am recording on my DVR for a later viewing when I have time. But I do need to review my inbox occasionally during the day and it’s difficult to avoid reading the subject matter which is where you decided to make a news flash of Henins loss.
Knowing in advance certainly takes the fun out of watching the match. And in this particular case, the match hadn’t even been shown yet on either espn2 or the tennis channel.
Goodbye all!
Bill,
I’m truly sorry that we spoiled your viewing of the match and that we will be losing you as a subscriber. Please accept my sincerest apologies.
Although, as you probably know from getting our emails in the past, our email newsletter normally goes out at about the same time each week on Monday. That schedule is no different during Grand Slams and as we always include a round-up of the latest news, we had to include the mention of Henin’s defeat.
You’re not the first to be concerned about getting spoilers online and please know that we’ve been taking that matter into consideration for some time. However, what we’ve been discovering is that the majority of our readers want to hear about tennis results in real-time. We have taken the precaution of announcing results delayed a few hours on Facebook, but as for the email newsletter, that was merely a fluke in the timing of Henin’s loss and the sending of our regular updates.
Again, my sincerest apologies and I hope you’ll still continue to visit On the Baseline.