Alright, you guys back up off of Justine. I absolutely loved to watch this average sized woman (5' 5 3/4" the story said) take on the behemoths and whip their asses with skill and cunning that overcame the power game that has ruined men's tennis. I will miss her badly. It's not only tennis for me either. I'd rather watch Duncan than LeBron, Ichiro over Big Papi, Mark Martin rather than Earnhardt.
Good point, Gradioc, and I agree with what you say. But Henin did seem a tad robotic, as Uncle Toby lightly seemed to allude. As an individual sport, tennis is aided by some form of flair in its athletes. Borg, Conners, Navratilova, Evert, Nastase, McEnroe (not one of my favourites), Becker, Agassi, Graf, Nadal, Blake. Even Sampras, tho I can't describe "it". Henin just didn't have the comfortable, Iwannarootforyou "it" for me. She certainly had the shots, though. And I do wish her a sweet retirement. And I like it when an athlete decides to retire while on top. Although it really disappointed me when Borg did it.
My first thought was "pregnant" when I heard how abruptly she'd retired. She had a good career, but she never captured my imagination, heart or even interest really. Not even enough to dislike her. Not, I'm sure, that she could give a whistling shit what I think.
My first thought was "pregnant" when I heard how abruptly she'd retired. I suppose it's possible, but given the timing, I think it's more likely a well-timed move to exit on top. That would be in character to the less emotional, more rational, always in control athlete that others have alluded to. I suspect that one of her greatest strengths has always been an ability to evaluate her own performance in a truly objective manner. If she looked at her performance this year and concluded, "You ain't got it, kid," what would she do? Most athletes would hang in there, pick up a few more dollars on the way as they gradually declined, but I can see her looking at that ending and deciding to take the band-aid off with one yank. Certainly there's something of dignity about it, but when I compare her exit to Agassi's, I wonder if exiting on top isn't more about vanity than dignity.
more about vanity than dignity A good point. It's not like boxing where you risk permanent brain dammage if you stay in the game too long. Even in decline, she'd still have been better than plenty of others out there for a long time and might have won more. Or maybe I just envy her self-knowledge. If there is no non-tennis reason for the decision, it's as ruthless and effective as her backhand became. It's a whole other debate - is it better to exit at the top, or allow yourself to decline slowly, possibly picking up the odd major here and there on your way out?
Or maybe I just envy her self-knowledge. If there is no non-tennis reason for the decision, it's as ruthless and effective as her backhand became. Yeah. My comment above kind of ended with a thump, because as I was writing it, my brain started to track in a different direction. Look at it one way, and Henin's resigning looks like the epitome of a graceful exit. Then I started to think about how Agassi ended his career, and I realized that there's a difference, sometimes a very stark one, between "graceful" and "gracious".
Grace was never a strong point of hers.
