Has Bodo sobered up or something?
Check this out:
tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2007/06/the_envelope_pl.htmlEnveloped in LovePosted 06/09/2007 @ 3 :35 PM
It was, clearly the first thing a young, maiden Grand Slam finalist must guard against, is told to guard against, vows to guard against, prepares to guard against and, often, cannot guard against. It goes by the common name "nerves", and it can paralyze you, glue your feet to the clay in a wide-awake anxiety dream, throw a wrench into your most well-oiled athletic motor and drill holes in your motorskills.
Ana Ivanovic knew all that before she stepped out to play the women's final at Roland Garros yesterday, and it didn't help.
Some things, no matter well you've prepared to meet them, you must undergo. You don't have a trial by fire without getting your eyebrows singed, and so it was with Ivanovic. She started well - very well - breaking Justine Henin in the first game of the match. In the next game, she continued playing positive, aggressive tennis, to go up, 40-0.
Then she tossed the ball to serve; she went up looking for it, but couldn't find it. It was up there, point after point, game after game. . . in fact, Ana's still looking for that danged serve. As she would say later:
I felt okay. I was trying to put the nerves aside, emotions aside. But then, in the first service game, it's, all of a sudden, from one point to another. It just -- it just hit me, I guess. And I had so much trouble with my ball toss, first serve. It was going everywhere. It was very hard to control it. And obviously, then I was trying just to put my first serve in. And she's a great player, so she could use the opportunities she had. And I think that was -- that was the big difference today.
It was the big difference on only one other occasion that Ivanovic could remember, the last round of a qualifying match for a Tier one event in Zurich, early in her career. Recalling that moment, she said:
I was a little bit nervous. But not half as I was today. But I think that's something I reach for first time in my life. And it's amazing, so I -- I'm not too surprised. . .Well, she's mentally very tough opponent, also, physically, she moves great. So it's very hard to hit winners against her. And you have to hit many shots. She forced you to win points few times, and until you actually finished the points. I was expecting that today. And she had time to turn very powerful shots as well. But I mean, just if my serve would have worked, and I think it could be a much different match.
The most noteworthy aspect of Ana's performance may be the way she ultimately reacted to playing deer to Henin's halogen headlights. There were no tears, self-recriminations, or excuses.She was as effervescent and breathless as ever. She 'fessed up, fully. She became paralyzed. She couldn't find her serve, and while pre-occupied looking for it, all kinds of bad things happened to her - but then Henin has a way of making bad things happen to good people.
Henin has won this event three years running, and it was under circumstances that were simultaneously touching, inspiring and, for Henin, potentially ennervating. This was her first major since she was reunited with her family, an episode she won't discuss before an audience. But a few of us found her brothers, David and Thomas, in the player lounge shortly after the final, and they were forthcoming.
David, 34, is the oldest of five children - but he would not have been, were it not for a tragic event that ended the life of a sister, Florence, when she was just two, and Madame Henin was six months pregnant with David. Florence was killed by a drunk driver who ran his car into the garden at Justine's grandfather's home, while Florence was playing there. Thus, David ultimately became the oldest of the four Henin children. The others are, in order, Thomas, Justine and Sarah.
So three members of Justine's original, immediate family were not present today: Florence, Francoise (who died 12 years ago, of cancer) and Justine's father, Jose. David explained that Jose chose to watch on today's final television, at home in Belgium, because the occasion was "too emotional."
David came to this tournament not having seen Justine play since around 2000, because family problems that the Henins decline to discuss caused a falling-out between Justine and the rest of the clan for seven years. That break was healed in April, when, in yet another automobile-related tragedy, David suffered a near fatal car crash that left him in a coma for two days.
Soon after David came to, he looked up from his hospital bed to see the familiar faces of Thomas and Sarah, and the foreign (at least not in the flesh) face of Justine. She had come to the hospital with the rest of the family to visit David. It was the first step in a family reunion that has climaxed here at this tournament. David said of the visit: "It was very moving. It really boosted my morale. It was something horrible that turned into something good."
"We had no communication with Justine for those seven years," David said. "She had her life, we had our life. But it is different now. She is a different person. Then, she was a teen-ager. Now she is a woman. And she is very special to us now. It was very important for us to see Justine in life (live). Now, she comes to see us every month, and she phones every week. We have permanent contact."
Of the troubled past, David would only say: "We don't speak about this. . . clash. It's past, now is the future and we are all together. It wasn’t a question of forgiving each other. We reconciled. I’m not going to try to explain why (the estrangement) happened. I have no explanation. She decided to live her life her way."
The family will celebrate with Justine tonight at a Parisian Italian restaurant, although David won't join them. "My wife and I are going back home. We have no time for the celebration because it's not good for me to go late at night. I have to work tomorrow, in the bar (David and Thomas, 31,own a bar together).
Reflecting on recent events, Thomas, 31, said, "We thought we'd become close again after her career, but strangely, it happened now. It was her decision to invite us to the tennis, and it turned out to be a wonderful day."
Knowing how emotional the moment might be for Henin, the family asked her: Are you sure you want us there? Absolutely, Henin replied. And then she took the court against Ivanovic and demonstrated just what David meant when he told us, "She was always very serious. She was serious in school. When she was 8 years old she used to jump rope thousands and thousands of times, because she needed to. When she has a goal, she does what she has to to get there."
Justine's spirits soared toward her goal yesterday, and that aim, fittingly enough, was a reconciliation with and tribute to her family, expressed in the most curious and seemingly unrelated manner: by virtue of a Grand Slam title won in their presence. Is there any more poignant and sharp example of the way tennis has ruled this young woman's life?
Of course, Ivanovic helped provide Henin's spirits with lift, but then so did her family, as well as the person Henin has most fully and unconditionally loved since the death of her Francoise Henin: her coach, Carlos Rodriguez. Throughout the match, Justine opened envelopes containing notes, including a final one that she only read after the end of the match.
That [last] one I'm going to keep it for me. Sorry. I'm sure that's the one that you want to know, but it's just Carlos and me. And the other ones, it's tactically, so you don't care about that. So, what I have to do on my serve, on my return at that time. And so, nothing special. But like I said, I had some troubles in the first, with my concentration and everything, and Carlos wanted me to be very, very professional on every point, and just remind me a few things at that time, pretty tight times during the match.But the last one, no. I mean, the thing I can say is that he's proud of me, for sure.
The ballad of Justine and Carlos is touching, and a mite strange. To understand just how much he has meant to her,in ways that have nothing to do with forehands and volleys (although he has everything to do with those as well), consider her own comments:
You know, it's 11 years, and that's pretty unique. Not a lot of people, just a few people can do it. And it's tough. You need a lot of respect, you need to be strong, and you need to love each other a lot, also. And I think we have everything in our relationship. And it's just great.
And his family, also, how they support me. How they can deal with the situation. And it's just amazing. We got closer and closer in the last few months, even if Carlos wants to keep some distance. But I think he starts to realize that we -- it's much more than a professional relationship. And he respects me a lot as a player, but much more important, as person.
And it's been amazing how he's been strong in the last few months with me.
When was the last time you heard a player use the word love in its most basic, profound sense, when talking about his or her coach? How many coaches try to "keep some distance" instead of having to work to close it? At this event, Carlos's emotional support may have been even more valuable to Justine than his tactical expertise. As she explained:
It's been hard for me, everything I lived in the last few months, ups and downs, you know, I mean, good things, bad things. And then I just realized that it's life. And life is ups and downs and you have to accept it. And you just have to deal with it. But I've been a little bit surprised how I could handle with the situation. It's been tough. And Carlos helped me so much, because we discussed a lot about that. We knew the situation is different now, and there are good things about it and things that we have to readjust also. And it's been a great adventure again in the last few weeks to build this victory. And we've been very close, Carlos and me, one more time. And it's really a team victory.
Trying to put the victory into context, Justine said:
Yeah, I think, you know, the match has been pretty easy, even if at the beginning of the match, she had the control for two games. And then she's been pretty nervous, and I did my job perfectly. I served well, and I did what I had to do on the court. But the atmosphere, and what I felt when I won, and the fact that, yeah, my family was there, and the good people around me. And it's been, yeah, a huge step in my life in the last few months. And I was glad I could give them this victory. Because everyone suffered a lot from the situation in the last few years. And today, finally, we are united in this joy, and we can share this moment, and it's great. And I feel so happy that I can offer that to them.
Who knows, next year Jose Henin may also appear in Justine's box, but remember that this is Justine, a woman who does things in her own way, in her own time, utterly indifferent to how she is perceived. This is how she addressed the subject:
We'll see. I need to take my time. We talked to each other; I knew he was watching me on television. He sent me a message. He's very happy after the match. He's very proud of his daughter. But just take my time. I know one day he'll be with me, beside me on the court.
But look who she's gotten to play in the finals of all 4 of her French Open titles. Talk about easy pickings. 
She's Mighty Mouse!
