Walk in to the FRENCH OPEN a QUEEN, having just retired at NUMBER ONE!
Way to GO GIRL JUSTINE!!!!
World No. 1 Justine Henin is retiring, effective immediately, her agent Ken Meyerson confirmed Wednesday morning.
Henin, who has been in a slump all spring, made the announcement official at a news conference later Wednesday in her native Belgium.
"It's the end of a wonderful adventure but it's something I have been thinking about for a long time," she said at the news conference.
Meyerson said Henin called him Sunday evening and, in what he described as a "warm" conversation, said, "I've won everything I need to win, I have more money than I can use in three lifetimes, and I don't have the will to play one day more."
Henin told Meyerson she had been thinking about the decision for five or six months. Her play over that period has been flat, partly because of a troublesome knee that required cortisone treatment, but Meyerson said the reasoning behind her retirement is all emotional.
"She's simply burned out and has no more juice to go on," he said.
"I was surprised at the urgency of the decision. We, as agents, like long farewells. I'm really sad," Meyerson said. "She did so much for the game, and we need her in the women's game. Pound-for-pound, she was one of the best tennis players in history. She was an underdog. She was someone we could relate to."
