98 Facts About Justine Henin

Justine Henin was ranked as the world No 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association for 117 weeks, including as the year-end No 1 in 2003,2006 and 2007.

Justine Henin was known for her all-court style of play and for being one of the few female players to use a single-handed backhand.

Justine Henin retired from professional tennis on 26 January 2011, due to a chronic elbow injury.

Justine Henin, occasionally spelled Henin, was born in Liege to Jose Henin and Francoise Rosiere.

Rosiere, a French and history teacher, died when Justine Henin was 12 years old.

When she was two years old, Justine Henin's family moved to a house in Rochefort, situated next to the local tennis club, where she played tennis for the first time.

In 1995, shortly after her mother's death, Justine Henin met her coach Carlos Rodriguez who guided her career both before her retirement in 2008 and during her 2010 comeback.

Justine Henin, known as "Juju" to many of her fans, was coached by Carlos Rodriguez of Argentina.

Justine Henin began her professional career on the Women's world Tennis Association tour in May 1999 as a wild card entry in the Belgian Open clay tournament at Antwerp and became only the fifth player to win her debut WTA Tour event.

Justine Henin won her hometown event, the Liege Challenger, in July 2000.

Justine Henin established herself as a major competitor in 2001, consequently reaching the women's singles semifinals of the French Open and then upset the reigning Australian Open and French Open champion Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals of Wimbledon, losing to defending champion Venus Williams in three sets in the final.

At Wimbledon 2002, Justine Henin beat former world No 1, Monica Seles, in two tough sets.

Justine Henin started the year as the 5th-ranked player in the world but lost to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the Medibank International in Sydney.

Justine Henin then lost to Venus Williams in the semifinals in straight sets.

Justine Henin lost to Clijsters in the semifinals of the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp.

At the clay court Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, Justine Henin defeated world No 1 Serena Williams in the final.

Justine Henin defeated Mary Pierce in the fourth round and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals before losing to Serena Williams in straight sets.

Justine Henin then played two tournaments during the North American summer hard court season before the US Open.

At the Tier I Acura Classic in San Diego, the third-seeded Justine Henin defeated the top-seeded Clijsters in the final.

Justine Henin was treated for muscle cramps and dehydration overnight but returned to play in the final the next day.

The win raised Justine Henin's ranking to world No 2, just behind Clijsters.

Two weeks later at the indoor Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Justine Henin lost in the final to Clijsters.

At the Tier I Zurich Open the following week, Justine Henin reached her sixth consecutive final where she defeated Serbia's Jelena Dokic.

Justine Henin temporarily lost her number 1 ranking after a week as she declined to defend her title at the Generali Ladies Linz tournament.

At the season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles, Justine Henin defeated Myskina and Capriati and lost to Japan's Ai Sugiyama in her round robin matches, which was sufficient to advance and return to the top spot on the WTA ranking.

Justine Henin was named the ITF's women's singles World Champion for 2003.

Justine Henin started 2004 by winning a warm-up tournament in Sydney and then the Australian Open in Melbourne, defeating Clijsters in three sets in the final.

At the start of the spring clay court season, Justine Henin's health was adversely affected by infection with a strain of cytomegalovirus and an immune system problem.

Justine Henin often slept up to 18 hours a day but barely had the strength to brush her teeth, let alone play competitive tennis.

Justine Henin then withdrew from the ten remaining tournaments of the year in an effort to recover her health and improve her fitness.

Justine Henin lost to second ranked Maria Sharapova in a quarterfinal.

Justine Henin rebounded at her next tournament, winning the clay court Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

Justine Henin won two more clay court titles before the start of the French Open.

Justine Henin was seeded tenth at the French Open and defeated the French player Mary Pierce in the final in straight sets to take her second title at Roland Garros.

Justine Henin next played the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she reached the final after beating Mauresmo in a semifinal before losing to Clijsters in straight sets.

Justine Henin was seeded fifth and played former world No 1 Martina Hingis in a much hyped first round match.

At the Australian Open, Justine Henin defeated top-ranked Lindsay Davenport and fourth ranked Maria Sharapova in three-set matches to set up a final against third ranked Amelie Mauresmo.

Justine Henin stated afterwards that she feared possible injury had she continued to play.

Justine Henin was criticized by the press because she had stated after her semifinal win against Sharapova that she was at the "peak of her fitness" and was playing the "best tennis of her life".

Justine Henin then helped Belgium defeat defending champion Russia in a Fed Cup quarterfinal.

Justine Henin then defeated Kuznetsova in the final to win her third French Open singles title in four years.

Justine Henin captured the title without losing a set and became the first French Open champion to defend her title successfully since Steffi Graf in 1996.

At the Eastbourne grass court tournament just before Wimbledon, Justine Henin defeated Anastasia Myskina in the final in three sets.

Justine Henin was the third seed going into Wimbledon and advanced to her third consecutive Grand Slam final without losing a set.

Justine Henin withdrew from Tier I events in San Diego and Montreal because of injury but played the tournament in New Haven.

Justine Henin became the first woman since Hingis in 1997 to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year.

Justine Henin won both of her singles matches during the Fed Cup final against Italy in Charleroi.

Justine Henin then defeated Mauresmo and won the tournament for the first time in her career.

Justine Henin was the first player since Hingis in 2000 to win the WTA Tour Championships and end the year as the top-ranked player.

Justine Henin was the first woman to win at least one Grand Slam singles title in four consecutive years since Steffi Graf from 1993 through 1996.

On 4 January 2007, Justine Henin withdrew from the Australian Open and the warm-up tournament in Sydney to deal with the break-up of her marriage.

Justine Henin then won two hardcourt tournaments in the Middle East, the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open over Amelie Mauresmo and her first Qatar Total Open title, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final.

At the French Open, Justine Henin was the two-time defending champion and top seed.

Justine Henin won the tournament without dropping a set and had not lost a set at this tournament since the 2005 French Open quarterfinals.

Justine Henin had not lost a match at the French Open since 2004.

Justine Henin recovered from a breakdown in the final set to win in a third-set tiebreak for the second consecutive year.

Justine Henin became only the second player to defeat both Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam tournament.

Justine Henin thus became the first women ever to defeat both Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam tournament, and go on to win the title.

Justine Henin won her next tournament, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, defeating Tatiana Golovin in the final.

Two weeks later, Justine Henin won the Zurich Open, her ninth title of the year, by again defeating Golovin in the final.

At the WTA Tour Championships, Justine Henin won all three of her round robin matches, defeating Anna Chakvetadze, Jankovic, and Bartoli.

Justine Henin won the match on her fifth match point in the final game of the match.

Justine Henin ended the year ranked world No 1 for the third time in her career, having done so previously in 2003 and 2006.

Justine Henin was the first player since Lindsay Davenport to end the year ranked world No 1 consecutively for two years.

At the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, Justine Henin defeated Karin Knapp in the final.

Justine Henin then withdrew from the Tier I Family Circle Cup because of an injury to her right knee.

The day after her defeat, Justine Henin withdrew from the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, citing fatigue.

Justine Henin announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis on 14 May 2008, and requested the WTA to remove her name from the rankings immediately.

Justine Henin's announcement was a surprise because Henin was still ranked world No 1 and was considered the favorite for the French Open, where she would have been the three-time defending champion.

Justine Henin said she felt no sadness about her retirement because she believed it was a release from a game she had focused on for twenty years.

Justine Henin said that in the future, she would be concentrating on charity and her tennis school.

Justine Henin mentioned seeing Roger Federer finally complete the grand slam of titles by winning the French Open in 2009 had been an inspiration, as had Kim Clijsters' return to the tour and her victory at the US Open.

Justine Henin made her return to tennis at the Brisbane International where she was given a wildcard.

Justine Henin defeated No 2 seed Nadia Petrova, Sesil Karatantcheva, No 7 seed Melinda Czink and No 3 seed Ana Ivanovic to make it to the final.

At the 2010 Australian Open, Justine Henin was given a wildcard as an unranked player.

Justine Henin started off with a straight sets victory over Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.

Justine Henin approached the net forty-three times, winning thirty-five of those points.

Justine Henin then defeated No 19 seed Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals.

Justine Henin played through this tournament injured, having previously broken her left pinkie during Fed Cup practice.

Justine Henin then participated at the French Open, seeded 22nd, the second grand slam of the year where she had won four previous titles.

Justine Henin had then tied the number of consecutive sets won at the French Open with Helen Wills Moody.

Justine Henin began the grass court season at the UNICEF Open, where she was the top seed for the first time since her return.

At the Wimbledon Championships, Justine Henin was the No 17 seed.

Midway through the first set, Justine Henin slipped on the court, injuring her right elbow.

Justine Henin was awarded the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award in December for her 2010 season.

Justine Henin did not lose any sets in the competition, earning comfortable victories over Alicia Molik from Australia, Sesil Karatantcheva from Kazakhstan, Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US in the final.

Justine Henin was the 11th seed and a defending finalist at the Australian Open.

On 26 January 2011, Justine Henin announced her definitive retirement from professional tennis, due to an exacerbation of the elbow injury she sustained the previous year at Wimbledon.

When she first came onto the tour, Justine Henin used a pinpoint stance for serving, but later retooled her serve to use a platform stance, which is most common among male players.

Justine Henin could hit her backhand flat, with heavy topspin, or slice [underspin].

Justine Henin's forehand was generally regarded as her most dangerous weapon, and the stroke that she normally used to dictate play in a match.

Justine Henin's style was often compared to that of Roger Federer and to five-time Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis as well.

Justine Henin was criticized for questionable sportsmanship during her tennis career, most notably at the 2006 Australian Open final and during a match against Serena Williams at the 2003 French Open.

On 16 November 2002, Justine Henin married Pierre-Yves Hardenne in the Chateau de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne, and officially adopted the name Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Justine Henin confirmed three weeks later that she had officially separated from her husband.

Since March 2011, Justine Henin has been in a relationship with Benoit Bertuzzo, a Belgian film director and actor, and secretly married him in March 2015.

On 12 September 2012, Justine Henin announced that she was pregnant, giving birth to a girl in 2013.

Justine Henin has worn apparel manufactured by Adidas and used Wilson racquets for her tournaments.