Justine henin stops immediately with Tennis

[thaibel]

In the morning there were rumours already yesterday in the newspapers. In the afternoon she confirmed these rumours and leave the competition immediately. A sad day for Belgium. How many times you can get such a top player, in whatever sport, out of ten million people. And she was really one of the best, still last year when she overshadowed everyone on the WTA-circuit.

Here some links:

Dutch:

http://www.sportwereld.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=M31RVRAP

English:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14052008/58/wta-tour-henin-announces-sudden-retirement.html

[thaibel]

She pretty much said on the news that she'd already achieved what she set out to and felt no further need to do it again knowing already what it meant to do it so many times before.

And I agree with her.

Once something is no longer a challenge, why continue to do it?

Maybe she's as jaded as I am to constantly hear Feferer this and Ferrari that and Man U the other.

When you already know you can beat everyone else in a particular field, surely it's better to move on and test yourself in another?

It's a pity, but I agree completely with you. Except Wimbledon she won all Grand Slams (7 in total) and 41 titles in important tournaments. She won the golden Olympic medal in Athens.

And already by the beginning of this season she start thinking about her future. I know she was already busy with a lot of other things. If you do sport top, you have no time to do something else.

Don't forget that a tennisplayer is constantly going around the world, training, concentrate and playing, giving interviews and conferences. That's already a heavy mental task.

Not to forget she has a small frame body and she had to get the pace and velocity to beat opponents who are 20 cm taller and much more muscled.

Sad that we won't see her anymore, but a brave decision.