TENNIS NEWS:THE TIME away from tennis has helped Justine Henin "grow up" as an individual and the former world number one is confident she is returning to the tour a better player.
Seven-times Grand Slam champion Henin announced her comeback to the women’s tour in September after a 15-month absence and the Belgian will kick off her preparation for the Australian Open at next month’s Brisbane International.
“I believe I can be a better player, I believe I can use my experience more than in the past,” she told the Brisbane event’s website (brisbaneinternational.com.au).
“It’s been a great experience to go out of the tennis world for 18 months and to come back because I feel I grew up.
“I really needed to come out of this bubble. The tennis world is a small world. There are so many things around that and I never realised that before.
“To come back to my passion, to what I love so much, after this part of my life is such a great feeling.
“I’m 27, now I just want to live my second career differently to how I did in the past.”
Henin won 41 WTA Tour titles and over $19 million in career prize money before quitting professional tennis. The 2004 Australian Open champion is a wildcard in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne before the season’s first Grand Slam event.
“When you are into it (playing tennis) 200 percent you have no time to realise it. You are too involved all the time and all this time off helped me to realise everything I achieved.
“What I can say is I know myself much better and that’s the most important thing. Of course I will need some time to be 100 per cent, to be the level I was when I stopped my career, but I’m ready to live anything here.”
Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki has set herself a conservative but very attainable goal of breaking into the world’s top three next year following a breakthrough 2009 for the world number four.
The 19-year-old is the youngest player in the world’s top 39 following a storming season which culminated in the Dane reaching a first Grand Slam final at the US Open.
The 2006 Wimbledon junior champion also added three titles last season and reached the most finals and posted the most wins by any player to propel herself to a career-high world ranking after beginning the season just outside the top 10.
“It is important to take small steps in terms of goals and also have goals that are realistic in the short term and I think three is realistic right now,” said Wozniacki.
“I need to have great results at all the Grand Slams if I want to make it up to one or two.
“It is tough to set specific tournament goals as everybody is playing well. It is tough to make a final and to win a Grand Slam, you have to play seven great matches so I don’t really have a tournament goal but, looking at Australia, I will look to improve on my third round last year.”
Wozniacki does not have a winning record against any of the other top-10 players and she has yet to prevail over world number one Serena Williams in two attempts, while second-ranked Dinara Safina triumphed in their only career meeting in the Madrid Open final this year.
She has fared much better against the likes of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva and is confident her results will continue to improve, with Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic also holding 100 per cent records against the Dane.
Wozniacki will step up her preparations for the Australian Open at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic at the start of January alongside Venus Williams and world number 14 Maria Sharapova.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)