Happy for Henin

So friggin’ happy. Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Kim Clijsters in the semifinals, 6-4, 7-6. It was a very close fight – HH almost lost the second set. Thank goodness she was able to catch up and force a tie breaker. YAY, JUSTINE! One step closer to reaching your Wimbledon dream. (I still do not know who she’ll face in the final round, though. As of press blog time, Mauresmo has won the first set against Sharapova.)

So Justine won the six previous rounds in straight sets. Her play was quite aggressive and she was unrelenting to her opponents. Each round was more or less an hour, save for the quarterfinals, it was 83 minutes. Such grit and determination. Although that might work to her disadvantage, if, for example, the final round stretches to three sets. Can she handle one or two more hours in the court? Again, it’s gonna be tough, but I believe in her. I’m fervently hoping she’ll finally add the Wimbledon title to her collection of Grand Slams.

Anyway, additional stuff for my previous post.

Dont' take that "who cares about the World Cup" seriously, okay? I think football is a great sport, and that we Pinoys would be better off in football than in basketball, coz let's face it, we're just not tall enough to shoot hoops. We even have to import players fercryinoutloud. It's just that I'm more familiar with tennis players than football teams, so Wimbledon it is. Ayt?

Back to Justine. When she's serving, she doesn’t purse her lips pala. It’s kinda weird, I dunno if I could explain it here. Her mouth is half-open and her lower lip kinda curls over her (lower) teeth. It's like she's grimacing in concentration. Gets? Probably not. Just look for her pictures in the Wimbledon website. :P

I mentioned that Justine’s back hand is said to be superb. I was wrong. It’s not just superb. It’s one of the best in the world.

I watched some replays, and I realized she didn’t have a relatively easy time getting to the semifinals. Severine Bremond, her opponent in the quarterfinals, was a fighter. Bremond was unseeded, yet Justine had to work hard to win those 12 games. Bremond certainly didn’t give in easily. She did not “go gentle into that good night,” so to speak. According to the commentator, Justine seemed rattled while Bremond was quite relaxed during their time off in the middle of the second set. Justine was leading then, but the score, I think, was 4-3, so it was very close.

Bremond is definitely worth watching out for. After her terrific tennis in the quarterfinals, it won’t be surprising to see her among the Top 20 in the next two years or so.

Two reasons why I think Belgium is so great: chocolates and Henin-Hardenne! Heehee. Yay, Justine!