Shocked Henin says she was drained out having to play five days on the trot due to rain delays
Shocked Henin says she was drained out having to play five days on the trot due to rain delays
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| Belgium's Justine Henin is disappointed after losing a point to Australian Samantha Stosur during a fourth round match of the French Open yesterday. Henin lost 6-2, 1-6, 4-6. Pic/ Getty Images |
The former world number one's last defeat on the Paris clay came back in 2004, after which she won a hat-trick of singles titles before announcing her shock retirement from the game just over two years ago.
This year's French Open was her first since and, despite being less than six months into her comeback, she was widely regarded as one of the favourites for the title.
But her aura of invincibility at Roland Garros faded somewhat when her 40-set winning sequence came to an end in the last round against Maria Sharapova ufffd before being shattered for good yesterday.
Henin, who was playing for a fifth successive day after her last two matches took place across two days, said: "It hasn't been easy, of course, the last few days, to play so many days in a row, even if it's not full match, but stop and start again the day after and finish the match.
"Emotionally, it was difficult to deal with all these matches. The two matches I had to stop and start again, especially against Sharapova, emotionally probably took a lot from me. That wasn't easy to come back on the court today."
The 27-year-old 22nd seed was nevertheless gracious in defeat, adding: "I just wanted so much that the adventure could keep going.
"I haven't been of course at my best today. Samantha was the best player on the court. She took her chances.
"When you come back at this level after two years off, you know it's not going to be easy to deal with a lot of situations.
"That means I still have to work harder and see it as a big challenge.
"I took this year as a year of transition, so of course it's hard.
"But, in another way, it seems a bit normal. I'll just try to keep a lot of positive things and get focused on the future now."
Australian seventh seed Stosur, who has been a revelation since reaching the semi-finals in Paris last year, will now face world number one Serena Williams in the last eight.
And she was more focused on her next match than dwelling on the fact she had just toppled a Roland Garros icon.
"It's obviously a great achievement for me but it's not over yet," she said.
"I'm just in the quarters and going to play the number one player in the world.
"It's not over yet but it's definitely something I can take a lot of confidence out of."
Williams watched sister Venus crash out of the women's singles yesterday but there was little danger of her following suit in a 6-2 6-2 victory over Shahar Peer on Philippe Chatrier Court.
The 28-year-old struggled to hold serve at times and was broken twice but fashioned an ominous six breaks of her own against an opponent who came close to knocking her out of the Australian Open three years ago.
Williams, who has not reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros since 2003, said: "I seem always to be able to turn it up during this particular stage maybe, the fourth round, for some reason.
"Hopefully, I turn it up again."
Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic and Yaroslava Shvedova completed the quarter-final line-up today when they beat Daniela Hantuchova (23) and Jarmila Groth, respectively.
Jankovic produced arguably her best performance of the tournament to win 6-4 6-2, while Shvedova added Groth two her two seeded scalps courtesy of a 6-4 6-3 victory.
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