Henin-Hardenne remains grounded

TENNIS: After embarrassing Mary Pierce in the final of the French Open, Justine Henin-Hardenne disappeared for a short holiday before focusing her energies on the one Grand Slam title she does not yet possess, Wimbledon.

To relax, she and her husband, Pierre-Yves, went skydiving. Having been forced out of the game for a prolonged period because of a lingering viral infection, Henin-Hardenne took to a different kind of adrenaline rush, a form of replacement therapy.

"I was away from the courts. I didn't have the stress and everything, and the adrenaline, so I needed to find something else," she said. "So that was my dream and I went with my husband and I loved it so much."

It takes a certain kind to love, hopping off a plane from several thousand feet, but Henin-Hardenne has never been seen as anything other than a bundle of carefully controlled nerves. Of all the players on the circuit, it is the tiny parcel of energy that has been told by doctors to lay off practice and curb her tournaments who can bring herself close to nervous exhaustion.

Before this week Henin-Hardenne has won four tournaments in succession and finished the season undefeated on clay. She is ranked seventh in the world, quite remarkable considering she has only played in seven events in the last year, while everyone else in the top 10 has played in at least 14. But rankings, especially in the women's game, have come in for a hammering.

Pierce was seeded 21 at Roland Garros and is seeded 12th for Wimbledon, while Henin-Hardenne, the 10th seed on her favourite surface, clay, gets a higher seeding of seven for the grass, where she made the final in 2001 only to be beaten by Venus Williams in three sets. But her run to the Paris final has put her back into the top 10 for the first time since January of this year, a position she unquestioningly deserves.

"I've always loved tennis so much, but last year I really missed tennis and maybe at that point, for the first time in my life, I understood that tennis was so important in my life," she said.

Lindsay Davenport continues to occupy the number-one position, closely followed by Maria Sharapova, rankings that are reflected in the Wimbledon Committee's seeding, which has the American and Russian the two favourites for the title. Davenport, at 28, has not won a Grand Slam event since 2000 and has not even won a tier-one event this year. Go figure the rankings.

Serena Williams comes to London, having missed out the French Open because of injury, while her elder sister, Venus, may well feel the need to undertake her own brand of therapy after suffering one of the worst defeats of her professional career, when she was beaten in the first week by a 15-year-old Bulgarian, Sesil Karatantcheva.

Sullen and morose after the match, Williams was also mystified by her inability to hit the ball accurately.

"I had never heard of her or seen her before this match," she said. "I felt that if I'd played 10 per cent better I would have won this match easy. I kind of beat myself. I feel like I'm a great player. I just feel this is not a good result for me right now."

What shape the Williamses arrive in is always closely observed, while Sharapova, the defending champion, has been showing some form on grass. Of all on show though, Kim Clijsters, the former world number one, has been the most eye-catching. The Belgian 15th seed has been playing on grass over the last two weeks for the first time in two years but is moving very well on the faster ground.

Indeed it has been the Belgians and Serena Williams who have been making the moves since the season began.

Williams opened with the Australian Open title while Clijsters arrived back from injury minus her ex-boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt and dominated the early hard-court season in the United States.

No doubt Henin-Hardenne will have observed all of her opposition. More controlled than spontaneous and needing to tactically out-think her opponents because of her shorter frame, she knows that grass will suit the power players like Davenport, Williams and Sharapova.

But even in the immediate glare of her French Open win she was thinking ahead.

"I don't think I will compete with Sharapova and Williams and all of these girls on the baseline," she said. "No way I can do that because it's so fast on grass, so I'll have to be much more aggressive."

That's not Henin-Hardenne the skydiver talking. It's the three times Grand Slam champion with her feet planted on the ground.