The backhand is back. The variety is back. The best women’s tennis player in the world is back.

No, I’m not talking about Kim Clijsters. Two Belgian newspapers are reporting that Justine Henin will announce Tuesday that she is returning to the game.

Henin has become a spokesperson for UNICEF and said just four months ago that tennis was “truly a page that has been turned.”

So what gives with women’s tennis? Is the entire sport full of Brett Favres, who keep retiring, but can’t stay away?

Kim Clijsters, after 2 1/2 years on maternity leave, came back to win the U.S. Open this month. She followed Martina Hingis out of retirement, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and others.

But these women are going through the opposite of what Favre keeps doing. It’s about fulfillment, and where you find it.

Let’s get back to that in a minute.

Justine Henin

Start with this: This is great for women’s tennis. It’s not that Henin is the most marketable player, but it’s never good for a game when its best player walks away. You always wonder if the new champs are really worthy.

The game fell apart after Henin retired in May of 2008. Several players have held the No. 1 ranking since then, before falling apart emotionally. Only Serena Williams has shown the capacity to be a champion, but she simply won’t work hard enough, or stay fit enough, to hold the top spot.

Dinara Safina is No. 1 now, and already in mid-collapse.

It has been an embarrassing time for women’s tennis, topped off with the top players choking and falling apart at the U.S. Open.

Henin, if reports of her comeback are true, immediately becomes the favorite to win the French Open in May, and maybe even the Australian in January. She will push back the nervous women in the hierarchy and also force Williams to make a decision about commitment.

So the transformation of women’s tennis is just about complete. In the past few months, the game will have seen the returns of Henin and Clijsters, the emergence of American teen Melanie Oudin, and also the return of Maria Sharapova, who had undergone shoulder surgery.

The top of the women’s game had become overloaded with large Russian women pounding the ball with exactly the same style. Sharapova plays that style, but doesn’t usually fold. Oudin’s mix-and-match style of spins and paces led her to beat four straight Russians at the U.S. Open. Clijsters mixes up her game. And Henin, undersized like Oudin, will do anything to win.

“You kind of need to work your way into a position where you can still win matches even if you make a lot more mistakes, or you’re not feeling the ball as well,” Clijsters said at the Open. “I think some of the girls don’t really have that now. I remember Justine, she was one who could mix her game up even if she was not playing well.”

But back to Favre, and why so many 20-something women keep retiring from tennis and then coming back. I think Favre leaves because of the grind of a season, but then finds himself more afraid of time away from football than time in it. What will he do without football?

With many of the young women, it has more to do with committing their lives, from childhood, to one singular focus. They leave because of the beating on their minds and bodies, but also, because they aren’t finding fulfillment. Henin and Clijsters went looking for more in life.

This year, Henin, who’s 27, traveled to Cambodia, Congo and Denmark, according to the Associated Press, to learn about infant vaccinations and how they affect poor mothers and babies around the world. UNICEF plans to use Henin as a featured part of a campaign this fall.

“I have been able to discover so many things in my life after tennis,” she said in a press conference for UNICEF. “You live in a bubble and in leaving it, you ask plenty of questions on plenty of issues.”

Clijsters said that when she retired, she had other things “that I wanted to achieve as a woman and as a person.”

Her husband, and her daughter, Jada, now travel with her on tour. And she said her life has balance and perspective: When she comes home after a match, her daughter doesn’t care how it went.

I’ve been critical of Williams for not trying unless she’s in a major, but credit her for finding other interests and not letting the game burn her out.

Maybe the tour needs to find a new system of scheduling to keep these young women around longer.

Her first time on tour, Henin reached the top, but felt the need to bulk up to withstand the beatings. Unhappy with that, she decided to come back to her previous size.

Then, she was gone.

Now, the game has its champion back. She was never the loudest or flashiest player. But tennis missed her.

By Greg Couch

Justine Henin is Back is a post from: AroDrive

Serena: 'I want to sincerely apologize'

NEW YORK — Serena Williams apologized Monday for what she called her “inappropriate outburst” during her semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open.

Williams was short on contrition in the postmatch news conference after her profanity-laced, finger-pointing tirade at a lineswoman Saturday night — and again in a prepared statement Sunday.

“I want to sincerely apologize FIRST to the lines woman, Kim Clijsters, the USTA and mostly tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst,” Williams’ latest statement said.

It was released by the U.S. Tennis Association about a half-hour before Williams and her sister, Venus, played in the women’s doubles final, which they won for their 10th Grand Slam title as a team. Given a chance to publicly deliver an apology during the postmatch ceremony, Williams declined.

“I’m a woman of great pride, faith and integrity, and I admit when I’m wrong,” her written statement said. “I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself inappropriately and it’s not the way to act — win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner. I like to lead by example. We all learn from experiences both good and bad, I will learn and grow from this, and be a better person as a result.”

Williams lost her temper after the lineswoman called a foot fault, resulting in a double-fault. That moved Clijsters one

Serena: 'I want to sincerely apologize'

point from victory. Williams then was penalized a point for her outburst. Because it happened to come on match point, it ended the semifinal with Clijsters ahead 6-4, 7-5. Clijsters went on to win the championship Sunday.

“I swear to God I’m [expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball and shove it down your [expletive] throat, you hear that? I swear to God,” Williams said to the official.

Williams was fined $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and could face further penalties — including a higher fine and a possible suspension — for what U.S. Open tournament director Jim Curley described as her “threatening manner.”

In an interview, Curley also said the tournament considered — and decided against — preventing Williams from participating in the doubles final.

The Williams sisters beat defending champions Cara Black and Liezel Huber 6-2, 6-2 Monday for their first U.S. Open doubles championship since 1999. Several spectators in the mostly empty stands showed support for the younger Williams, greeting her with shouts of “You go, Serena!” and “We love you, Serena!”

During the trophy ceremony afterward, Williams drew applause when she said: “I’d like to thank the fans for supporting me through everything. I really, really love you guys and never want to have a bad image for you guys.”

ESPN2′s Patrick McEnroe gave her a chance to publicly reiterate her apology, but Williams said: “I think I said it all.”

When McEnroe followed up by asking whether anything had “clicked” in her head, fans booed, and Venus quickly interjected: “What I think the crowd is saying is, ‘Patrick, let’s move on,’” earning applause.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Serena: ‘I want to sincerely apologize is a post from: AroDrive

Serena Williams offered no apology and showed no remorse for her behavior during her U.S. Open semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters, 6-4, 7-5.

Her tirade toward U.S. Open to lineswoman goes beyond those of McEnroe and Nastase in earlier days, especially as she shows no remorse. She should be heavily fined and suspended.

Let’s see what kind of guts the normally soft-on-discipline sport of tennis has this time. If she were an Oregon football player, she’d be out for the season.

If you saw it on television, you know what happened, you know that she made a fool out of herself Saturday night in an ugly incident at the U.S. Open. If you didn’t see it, we’ll confirm it:

Serena Williams made a fool out of herself Saturday night in an ugly incident at the U.S. Open.

The quick details are:

* She was given a point penalty on match point, which meant she lost her semifinal to Kim Clijsters, 6-4, 7-5.

* She was given the point penalty because, after a linesperson called a foot fault on her first serve at 15-40, she went over to the linesperson, shook her fist at her, and from just several feet away, said, according to several witnesses courtside, “You don’t know me. You better be right. I could shove this ball down your throat.” Interspersed with this were several F-bombs.

* The lineswoman was called to the chair umpire to report what had been said. The chair umpire had given Williams a warning/code violation at the end of the first set, when Williams smashed her racket to the court and broke it. That is a routine call for chair umpires. A second violation called from the chair is loss of a point, a third loss of the match. Williams’ second violation was on match point.

* The point violation was assessed after a conference around the umpire’s chair that included chair umpire Louise Engzell, tournament referee Brian Earley, the unidentified lineswoman and Williams. During that confab, Williams was overheard on TV microphones as denying she had threatened to kill the lineswoman.

Quickly, Williams was tossing her racket on her bag and walking to the back of the court, where a confused Clijsters spread her palms open as if to say, “What’s going on?” and then accepted Williams’ handshake and short hug.

Since the days of John McEnroe and maybe Ilie Nastase, there hasn’t been much of this in tennis. This might have gone well beyond those days in severity.

serena_williams Defending her self

It was on network television, in one of the most-anticipated matches of the entire tournament. Millions watched.

It went well beyond the McEnroe tirade stage into body language and direct verbiage that was threatening and ugly.

It was an embarrassment to a sport that has made good strides recently in expanding its niche. The U.S Tennis Assn. loves to talk about its “grass-roots” programs, geared to getting rackets into young players’ hands. Now those young hands have a role model for racket-smashing and bad language.

As bad as this incident was, leaving a three-quarters-filled Arthur Ashe Stadium in near stunned silence, worse was Williams’ handling of the aftermath in a news conference. There, she had a chance to apologize, or maybe even fake some remorse. She did neither.

Instead, we got the usual, phony, sing-songy deflections and silly answers — all done with a big smile, as if she had just won, 6-0, 6-0.

Examples:

Question: What did you say?

Answer: What did I say? You didn’t hear? Oh.

Q. Do you think the lineswoman had any reason to feel threatened. Apparently she says she felt threatened?

A. She says she felt threatened. She said this to you?

Q. I’m just repeating what has been said that she told the chair umpire.

A. Well, I’ve never been in a fight in my whole life, so I don’t know why she would be threatened.

Q. Do you regret losing your temper both after the first set and after the foot fault?

A. I haven’t really thought about it to have any regrets. I try to — I’ve done — you know, I try to not live my life saying, I wish, I wish. But, you know, I was out there and fought and I tried and I did my best.

Q. You’ve always prided yourself on being an extremely forthright player, and with us here in the press room. Could you tell us what you said on the court, please?

A. I don’t think that’s necessary for me to speak about that. I’ve let it go, and I’m trying to better — to, you know, to get — to move on.

Q. Do you think the lineswoman deserves an apology?

A. An apology for?

Q. From you.

A. From me?

Q. Would you be interested to see if you actually foot faulted?

A. I’m pretty sure I did. If she called a foot fault, she must have seen a foot fault. I mean, she was doing her job. I’m not going to knock her for not doing her job.

The public that watched this ugly farce will be watching closely now. It will see if tennis pretends that this somehow wasn’t as outrageous as it clearly was, and that it didn’t wipe out years of image-building in the sport.

If it goes without being addressed, then tennis is just telling us it cares only about our ticket money and us in front of the television set, but not our respect, loyalty or admiration.

Best guess? Tennis will pretend this was all a Las Vegas card game and let it ride.

Serena Williams offered no apology and showed no remorse for her behavior during her U.S. Open semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters is a post from: AroDrive