Justine Henin-Hardenne Ousted on Poor Serve
Roland Garros winner Justine Henin-Hardenne crashed out of Wimbledon tennis championships during her first round women's singles match against number 76 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, London, June 21, 2005. Daniilidou won 7-6 2-6 7-5.
After the triumphant return in Paris, Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, who missed nearly all previous year’s tournaments because of the injuries, was tipped as an undisputable forerunner. Besides, Wimbledon victory would have been particularly vital for Justine, as unlike three other Grand Slam titles, each of which won by her at least once, Henin-Hardenne has always needed just a step en route to Wimbledon success.
Eleni Daniilidou was hardly expected to challenge Justine, although some adepts of statistics recalled she saw off the Belgian once in 2002 and also on the grass court.
In today’s Wimbledon, Daniilidou reached the break at 2-2 in the fifth game of the first set. Henin-Harden played back then. But Daniilidou fought back in the tie-break to take the first set.
As if back in her form in the second set, Henin-Hardenne left no chances to Daniilidou in it, but was undone by unforced errors in the decisive third set. She lost the match at her serve, on the 11th double-fault.
To a certain extent, Henin-Harden’s ouster might have eased the task of defending Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova of Russia. Maria sailed through the first round with a convincing 6-2 6-2 win over Nuria Llagostera Vives, who was no rival for her.
Sharapova’s advantage was so evident that she was not even asked about the match when it was over. The highlight was Maria’s trainers with the pure gold used to make them, raising the price to $900. Sharapova stressed she wanted something special, inspiring. “You know, I’m as if flying in them,” Maria said evidently satisfied with the trainers.
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All the Article in Russian as of June 22, 2005
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