Posts Tagged ‘tennis’

Justine Henin Begins A Return

If we rewind by a few years in the women’s tennis world, we’ll arrive at a time where Justine Henin was the world’s best female tennis player. Not only was she the best, but she was rather dominant.

Having sat atop the world rankings for a couple of years, Henin surprised many tennis fans when she retired at the very young age of just 25 years old in 2008. Many wondered why she would call it quits when she was at the top of her game.

Her retirement had everything to do with the fact that she simply grew tired of the lifestyle that comes with that of a professional athlete. The training and the grueling schedule had taken their toll on this champion.

This would allow her to focus on both her charity work and her tennis school, as she took pride in training the many talented young kids who came to her school.

There was definitely a void in the world of women’s tennis. The number ones of the world weren’t truly the best in the minds of some fans, because they wondered if Henin would still be at the top of the ranks. Out of nowhere, some wishes were granted a few months ago when she said she’d return to the sport.

Still, there was doubt. Would she be able to play at the level she left off at? When someone goes nearly two years without playing a professional match, they can’t be expected to be as good.

Well, if her recent play is any sort of indication, all possibilities should be on the table at this point. With a first round straight sets win at the Brisbane International tournament against second seeded Nadia Petrova, she looked very much like her old self.

After seeing Kim Clijsters’ triumphant return to the sport after her US Open win last year, nothing should be considered unrealistic for Justine Henin.

About this writer: Besides sports, the writer also regularly writes about stoneware dinnerware sets and fine china dinnerware sets.

Rafael Nadal Biography – Four Consecutive French Open Wins

Rafael Nadal Parera, nicknamed “Rafa” has taken the tennis world by storm during the past five years. He has fast made his way through the professional tennis circuit and has had a phenomenal streak of wins. This Rafael Nadal biography, takes a very brief look at just what this young man has managed to accomplish in such a short space of time.

Rafa is now ranked as the second best singles tennis player world-wide. He has had sixty consecutive tennis wins on the clay-courts and as winning streaks go, this is quite remarkable.

Born in Manacor, Mallorca on June 3rd 1986, he has professional sports in his genetic make-up. His uncle was also only 15 years old when he started playing professional football. Miguel Angel Nadal played for F. C. Barcelona for many years.

What is interesting about Rafael Nadal is that like his uncle he was only 15 years of age when he won his first ATP match. This took place in Majorca and he won against Ramon Delgado. This feat made him the 9th player of the “Open” era to win in an ATP match before he was 16. Only a year later he was the 2nd youngest ranked singles player to feature in the top 100 tennis players in the world.

Making a debut at Wimbledon aged 16 years in 2003, he managed to reach the 3rd round. No tennis player since Boris Becker had done this. His meteoric rise to fame continued and by 2005 saw him ranked the 5th best tennis singles player, making him the youngest player to make it into the top ten since Andrei Medvedev.

Rafa won a Grand Slam on his first appearance and is only the seventh player to ever achieve this. He also won the US open as a teenager, the first player to do this since Pete Sampras in 1990. Pet Sampras was 19 years of age at the time. He is quite literally a tennis hero, and as the winner of four French Opens consecutively, deserves this accolade, so much so that this Rafael Nadal biography is important for one so young.

Find more on Nadal bio and Rafa Nadal news.

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