Henin-Hardenne Takes Home Year-End Championship Title

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.

Article Author: Lawntennisnews

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