AUSTRALIAN OPEN:
0 Comments | Charleston Daily Mail, Jan 19, 2010 | by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia – Justine Henin’s new, philosophical outlook on life and tennis comes with a few fringe benefits. She’s dining out more, for one thing.
The relentless intensity that characterized the diminutive Belgian as she won seven Grand Slam singles titles before retiring 20 months ago has given way to a more self-assured, open manner in her second coming to the game.
“I’m a little less superstitious about the past,” Henin said after her 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow Belgian Kirsten Flipkens to the Australian Open on Monday. “I’ve tested a different restaurant every day since I’ve arrived – that never happened in the past.
“I feel like I’ve evolved,” she added, laughing, “and there are things that don’t have a role in success or failure.”
Henin is still driven by a challenge, and that’s what brought her back to Melbourne Park for her first major since a quarterfinal loss to Maria Sharapova at the 2008 Australian Open.
Unranked and playing as a wild card entry, Henin will now play a second-round match against fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, who won the Olympic gold medal in Beijing only a few months after Henin retired in May 2008, opting not to defend her French Open and Olympic titles.
A win over Dementieva could put her on course for a quarterfinal against fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters, whose win at the U.S
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