Maria Sharapova

Justine Henin-Hardenne, the year-end world No1, lost her second surname and her first position following her recent separation from Pierre-Yves Hardenne. Yesterday Henin, the world No2, faced up publicly to the pain in her life revealing that the shock has been so great that she has no aim to regain the top spot from Maria Sharapova just yet. Nor can she think about tennis beyond the next couple of months.

“I have to take it step by step,” she said. “It has been a difficult period in my life for sure but I will try to come back strongly with my tennis. I just need to accept that it will take a little time. I have never used tennis as a way of forgetting something else. I have just tried to face reality. And now I have to try to build myself again like I did many times in my life.”

Much will depend on how well she can control her emotions. For this reason the Belgian made it clear that she is anxious to keep her public and private life separate. “You always have a lot of people who are very curious and they want to know why and who - and who cares? That’s my life,” said Henin.

“We all have the same rights and we have to respect that. We can talk about tennis and I know I am a public person. But as soon as I am not on a tennis court and as soon as something touches my private life, I think I can keep it for myself. It’s a little bit like my secret garden. All of you, I’m sure, have ups and downs in your life and why should I be different just because I’m a famous tennis player? I’m a person before being a player.”

Henin won only two matches in her comeback tournament, the Open Gaz de France in Paris a fortnight ago, after missing the Australian Open but claims she has no regrets about that as she prepares to defend her Dubai Open title this week. “It was still a brave decision to play there,” she said. “I played a few matches to get back on the tour, to try to find my motivation, to get some rhythm and to feel the atmosphere - that was very important. And Dubai is far away from the Australian Open and so I thought ‘let’s go and face it now’. I already feel better about that.”

Nevertheless an hour-long schedule of interviews was quite an ordeal just two days before trying to retain a title in a tournament where she has never been beaten. If Henin can get to the final again, she may find herself facing Amélie Mauresmo, who beat her both in the Wimbledon final and in last year’s Australian Open final, from which she controversially retired. The atmosphere between the two has been strained ever since. Life may not get any easier this week.

Eleni Daniilidou of Greece defeated the seventh-seeded Li Na of China in the first round yesterday. Daniilidou, the world No42, beat the 16th-ranked Li 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 in a match lasting just over three hours. Maria Kirilenko of Russia advanced to the second round after beating the wild card Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 6-0.

“It was a really easy match for me. I think I did some right things in the match and that helped,” Kirilenko said. Alicia Molik of Australia beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 6-4.

(the guardian)