Henin-Hardenne Takes Home Year-End Championship Title
13th Nov 2006, 15:55 GMT
A stunning final in Madrid at the Sony Ericsson Championships had Justine Henin-Hardenne's name all over it. Although it was a very close match, Amélie Mauresmo didn't seem to be as sharp yesterday. The 1st set started with two break points for Justine, but Amélie got away with it. At 1-1 Justine had again three break points but didn't convert. At 2-2 and again three break points Justine and she broke to lead 3-2. She did hold to confirm the break, but lost her serve at 4-3, allowing Amélie to tie at 4-4. But in the next game Justine had again 3 breakpoints and converted again to take the lead. She served it out impressively with a blank serve, 6-4. In the second set Justine started with a break of serve right away, but was rebroken in the 2nd game 1-1. They went on serve 'til 2-2, then Justine again broke (three breakpoints). But as a copy of the former break, Amélie managed to break back right away, making it 3-3. Justine didn't give up and broke again with brilliant net game 4-3. There were no break points against her in the next game, she was going for match points in Amélie's next serve: she was very successful with an aggressive net game and close to the line points, getting three breakpoints again (0-40). The second was successful -- Amélie served a double fault and it was over 6-3. After Amélie broke back a second time in the second set to 3-3, the commentators meant there was a turning point in the match, but they clearly were wrong! Great match from Justine, who confirms her No. 1 spot with a Masters title winning from the former No. 1! Amélie admitted that her game was not like yesterday's against Kim, which was a tiring match. So in fact Kim did help Justine to win the Masters. Looking at the statistics: 1st serve: Henin-Hardenne 60%, Mauresmo 61% 1st serve won: Henin-Hardenne 23/30 (77%), Mauresmo 19/43 (44%) 2nd serve won: Henin-Hardenne 6/19 (32%), Mauresmo 13/29 (45%) Aces/double faults: Henin-Hardenne 2/4, Mauresmo 3/3 Break point conversion: Henin-Hardenne 6/16, Mauresmo 3/4 The numbers were all clearly in favour of Justine, who lost only 7 of her first serve games, and pushed hard on Amélie's game with 16(!) breakpoints. Manfred is the owner of both Lawntennisnews and Football-inside. He and his team are dedicated to bringing u the latest football and tennisnews from accross the globe. Subscribe to the Football-inside RSS feed.
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