Monday, January 11, 2010

JUSTINE HENIN FOR MALAYSIAN OPEN?


If things go according to plan, Malaysian tennis fans will be in for a treat next month as former world number 1 and seven times Grand Slam winner, Justine Henin could well make an appearance in the USD250,00 event to be held at the Bukit Kiara Club.

The organisors, Carbon Media are in the midst of negotiating with the Belgian star to make an appearance and an answer could well be forthcoming soon.

In May 2008, Henin had retired from tennis as world No1 at the age of 25, looking depleted as she spoke wearily of needing "to breathe again".

Henin returned to the suffocating grind of the women's tour , last week in Australiabut she lingers over the moment which sparked her unexpected comeback.

Henin's tangled life is wrapped around the fact that she lost her mother, Françoise, to cancer, when she was only 12. In her subsequent misery she gradually became alienated from her father and her two brothers and younger sister – and fell out with them entirely when marrying Pierre-Yves Hardenne in 2002. Henin did not speak to her family until, after she separated from Hardenne early in 2007, she was reunited with them when her eldest brother was involved in a serious car accident.

Russian star Elena Dementieva leads the pack of world ranked players for the event scheduled to take place at Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort from Feb 22-28.

Dementieva, the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist, ranked fifth in the world, will have for company other stars like China's Li Na (ranked 17) and Jie Zheng (35), Germany's Sabine Liscki (22), Hungary's Melinda Czink (37), Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova (44), Australia's Jelana Dokic (58), India's Sania Mirza (56), Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm (64) and Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn (99).