Roland Garros 2009: Justine Henin “sad” to see Slam-less players atop rankings
By Tennis Guru on May 29, 2009
Former world number one Justine Henin said that she’s “sad” to see some players reaching the top ranking in the women’s tour without winning even a single Grand Slam title.
“To be honest, I didn’t follow a lot of the tour in the last 12 months. But I know who has been No. 1, and the fact that some players are No. 1 and haven’t won a Grand Slam … I think is quite sad,” Henin was quoted as saying during her visit at the Roland Garros on Thursday.
The Belgian was obviously referring to Serbian Jelena Jankovic and Russian Dinara Safina who both clinched the number one ranking without a Slam. Jankovic ended the year 2008 as world number one with a runner-up finish at the US Open while Safina had two runner-up finishes for the past year including Roland Garros.
The four-time French Open champion went on to say that the women’s tour needs “a leader.”
Henin retired from professional tennis last year while still at the top of the rankings. Since then, five players have reached number one (Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina). The Belgian stressed once more that she has no plans of returning to the tour.
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Check out her WTA profile HERE.
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Filed in Featured, French Open, Grand Slam, Tennis Feature
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It’s just a fact that since Justine nobody has broken through who is both continually consistent and a Slam winner. The No 1 ranking requires consistency over a 12-month period rather than a few big perfomances, and on that basis Dinara Safina thoroughly deserves it even if she does choke in the big finals – she has plenty of other tournaments to her credit, and has now been in 3/5 of the last GS finals. In some ways it makes the outcome of tournaments more interesting not to have a clear leader. Let’s see though if Dinara can recover from her French Open defeat; if she can overcome her demons she seems to have what it takes to be a great champion.
Stan | Jun 8, 2009 | Reply