Famous Players : Men

Famous Players : Women

Famous Tennis Players

Justine Henin Hardenne

Justine Henin-Hardenne (born June 1, 1982 in Liège) is the current World No. 1 ranked female tennis player. She is from the Walloon (French-speaking) region of Belgium. Her mental toughness and her one-handed backhand, a stroke which John McEnroe has called among the best backhands of any male or female player, are reasons she is one of the world's best players As of November 2006, she has won five Grand Slam singles titles, including three French Open singles titles, as well as a gold medal in singles at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Henin-Hardenne, known as "Juju" to many of her fans, has been coached by Carlos Rodriguez of Argentina since she was 14 years old. Early on, she regularly reached the late rounds of international competitions and won five International Tennis Federation tournaments by the end of 1998. She started her professional career on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour in May 1999 as a wild card entry in the Belgian Open at Antwerp and became the fifth player to win her debut WTA Tour event.
Henin-Hardenne established herself as a major competitor in 2001 when she reached the women's singles semifinals of the French Open and the women's singles final of Wimbledon. By the end of the year, Henin-Hardenne was ranked seventh in singles, with three titles to her name. In 2002, she reached four WTA finals, winning two of them. Henin-Hardenne finished the year ranked fifth. Her German Open victory, her first win at a Tier I tournament, was noteworthy as she beat Jennifer Capriati in a semifinal and Serena Williams in the final, the then number two and number five ranked players, respectively.
Henin-Hardenne was the first woman since Hingis in 1997 to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year. Henin-Hardenne guaranteed her year end world No. 1 ranking by reaching the final of the WTA Tour Championships, defeating Sharapova 6-2, 7-6(5) in a semifinal. Henin-Hardenne then won the tournament for the first time in her career by defeating Mauresmo in the final 6-4 6-3. Henin-Hardenne is the first player since Hingis in 2000 to win the WTA Tour Championships and end the year as the top ranked player. Henin-Hardenne is the first woman to win at least one Grand Slam singles title in four consecutive years since Graf from 1993 through 1996. Her prize money earnings for 2006 totaled U.S. $4,204,810.

Grand Slam singles finals