Shriver Criticizes Henin-Hardenne

Thanks to Tiffany for recommending this article.  It's a couple of days old but still relevant based on the discussion going on in the comments on this blog.  No sympathy at all for JH-H from Pam Shriver in this article.

From ESPN: Shriver: Henin-Hardenne's reputation is tarnished

I wasn't surprised when after the first set of the Australian Open final, Justine Henin-Hardenne went into the locker room and did what so many players do when they are losing: Take an extended bathroom break and maybe call the trainer.

It happens so often, and that's what I thought was going on.

But trailing 2-0 in the second set, when she took that first step to the net after the injury time out and said she couldn't continue, that's when my stomach hit the floor.

A major final to a tennis player is sacred ground. Short of any type of serious injury -- soft-tissue tears, serious orthopedic injuries or a major illness like throwing up, dehydration or cramping -- you keep going, especially in the final of a Slam.

Henin-Hardenne obviously wasn't 100 percent and had some stomach discomfort. Only she knows how much, but to see her call it was stunning to me.

She has been one of the great warriors of women's tennis the last three years. My respect level disintegrated when I not only saw what happened on the court, but when I took in the press conference.

I was incredibly disappointed with her rationale of quitting. She didn't feel like she had enough on her shots, knew she didn't have it and didn't sleep well. I'm sorry, this is a major final. It's almost like it didn't occur to her what she had just done. (She's just the fourth player to retire in a women's final of a Grand Slam.)

When she's been on the court playing the game she's been the best competitor in women's tennis. So what got into her to throw in the towel?

In my mind, the only thing that may have justified it is if she thought the virus condition which cost her most of the 2004 season could come back and be triggered by whatever she was feeling.

It had to be something more major than just a poor anti-inflammatory reaction in the stomach. I took more anti-inflammatories probably than anybody in my 20 years of playing and I know what that terrible stomach pain can be. I also know what terrible menstruation cramps can be, as most women tennis players have, to the point where you feel nauseous, but you just play on.

So much still could have happened in that match. Amelie Mauresmo has never closed out a Grand Slam final before. It's possible you start to feel a little bit better. You give every last shot.

Is Henin-Hardenne that flushed having won four major titles that the fifth one she could just discard when she was down 2-0 in the second set?

In regular tournaments, players throw in the towel occasionally for one reason or another. Clearly Henin-Hardenne was sub-par, but that doesn't matter. There are certain caliber events -- Olympics, major finals, Daytona 500, the Masters, Super Bowl --- where you just suck it up.

Can you imagine how many of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks are going to have massive physical problems in the Super Bowl? And they are going to suck it up.

I got to one Grand Slam final, and that's what you shoot for as a player. Henin-Hardenne just wasted one because her stomach was hurting a lot?

Mauresmo could have turned an ankle, she could have choked terribly. She could have seized up and not been able to hit her forehand in the court. Matches have turned around in a lot more peculiar ways than what we saw.

I think Henin-Hardenne's reputation is tarnished forever. The tennis beat writers will never let her forget this. And it's not a first. Remember there was the 2003 French Open serving incident against Serena Williams, when she held her hand up on a Williams serve to signal she wasn't ready, then pretended like she did nothing.

She is going to be known as much for these incidents on the court as she is for all the Grand Slam finals she won.

Roberto Duran was a great fighter, but what is he known for? No mas, no mas (in his 1980 rematch against Sugar Ray Leonard).

Time will tell, and maybe some better explanation will come out in a month or two. Maybe there is a better reason and there's still a chance for this to make sense.

But so far it doesn't.

Comments

[paleochora]

Shriver is spot on. JHH will have to live with this all her career now. Look how we are with Hingis, everyone is happy she's back and playing well but we still remember her dreadful behaviour against Graf at the French and her inability to lose with the same grace as she wins.

[Tiffany]

I agreed with Pam Shriver completely. It was nice to hear a former player who experienced stomach discomforts actually explain the pain. In the other article, everyone who commented in Henin's favor had no real idea what it was like to have these pains and here we have a former player w/20 years tour experience give us the details and then conclude that she should have toughed it out. I know people have said she may have been at serious injury risk, we don't know how bad it was, why did it matter if she quit, we don't know how sick she was. Well all of that is fine, but I think everyone has underplayed the significance of reaching and playing in a grand slam final. This is the big leagues and I find it unacceptable to quit b/c of a tummy ache. Unless you are physically ailing (sprains, limps, strains) to where you can cause yourself serious injuries, I think you should tough it out. I don't buy a stomach ache as being so serious that she would have put her career in jeporady to continue playing. I don't think this was related to her virus that cost her a year on tour. If I'm right, that was a completely different type of virus. I think she may have been sick at her stomach, but let's face it, she quit because she knew there was no hope to win. And you can't say, what does it matter or if Mauresmo was going to win why does it matter. This is the grand slam final in tennis. These are the matches that go down in history and Justine wrote her history as a quitter. It is unacceptable and no matter what excuse or reason anyone comes up with, it is unforgivable and it will take a long time for people to forgive her or trust her as a player.