Justine Henin claims Eastbourne International title

It has been such a long time since I last blogged but I have to tell you something about tennis again. Just after the French Open (clay court), Justine Henin took the Eastbourne International (grass court) in her title sweep, beating Amelie Mauresmo 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 in a nail-biting match. This test will be useful for Wimbledon which is also on grass. It takes a while to get used to grass after playing on clay. Clay is the sport's slowest surface.

Under the typically heavy onshore winds in the seaside town of Eastbourne, this year's final looked to be about which player had better control over handling the rougher North end of the court. The signs didn't look promising for Justine in the first set as she battled in practically all of her games against the wind for placement of her immaculate shots. The more physical style of Mauresmo didn't fare any better than Henin in the gusty conditions, and the Frenchwoman's serves were slightly more vulnerable in the latter stages. Justine took the first set 7-5 by breaking, and standing stronger from 1-4 down.

Mauresmo took a more cautious approach in the second set, and chose to utilize the safe, and secure volleys simply blocking returns as Justine started to go astray with her higher risk, and low margin shot making. Belgian percision simply didn't work well against French stability. Mauremo won the second set with a confident tiebreak display as Justine made a tactical change too late after falling behind and saving four set tiebreak points at 4-7.

The match went into a lower gear in the start of the third set as both players held serves without much resistence until Mauresmo looked to have taken over with a deja vu of last year's Wimbledon final in a 2-4 lead. But a very different Justine emerged, one that's less removed from 2006 and more in tuned to the classic spirited fighting 2003 tennis season version. Justine levelled things at 5-5. The gauntlet was again thrown down with another tiebreaker, but this one was all Henin as she again changed tactics and went back to the hyper aggressive rapid passing shots, and crosscourt winners mode. This switch in plans by Justine left Mauresmo stranded and off guard up at the net in the midsts of following through with volleys. Justine won the tiebreaker 7-2.



What a beautiful volley!