Justine Henin

Justine Henin is evidently a magnet for two things at the 2010 Australian Open: the best efforts of worthy challengers, and great tennis theater.

Ever since she escaped a routine first-round match against a tomato can opponent, Henin’s had to spill every ounce of energy in her small but willful frame in order to progress to the women’s singles quarterfinals.

She warred with Elena Dementieva for 2 hours and 50 minutes in a second-round match created by the random (bad) luck of the draw. She then absorbed two and a half sets’ worth of missiles from Alisa Kleybanova in the third round, and stared down a 6-3, 3-1, 15-40 deficit, before rallying to win in three.

With her body being taxed for the first time since her just-ended 16-month hiatus from the WTA Tour, Henin’s freshness has quickly been eroded. Her ability to turn around from one grueling match to the next has been heavily scrutinized, and it’s been rightly presented as the biggest factor in each and every match she plays here in Australia.

She might be accustomed to the rigors of regular competition when the clay court season arrives, but for now, her comeback – precisely because it’s so new – involves a higher-than-normal degree of physical uncertainty every time she takes the court. As Henin prepared for an all-Belgian battle with young Yanina Wickmayer, the 27-year-old veteran didn’t know what to expect from a countrywoman she had never played before. Just as importantly, Henin didn’t know what to expect from her own body.

After 2 hours and 13 minutes against a Belgian who might someday win a major title of her own, Henin should now feel more confident than ever that she can endure two full weeks of all-court slugging. In a match that exceeded her clash with Dementieva in terms of pure quality, Henin withstood Wickmayer’s impressive combination of poise and power.

Playing a perfect first-set tiebreak and gathering her mental resources for the stretch run, Henin picked her spots in a scintillating 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3 victory that propelled her into the round of eight and a date with Russia’s Nadia Petrova on Tuesday.

Wickmayer was a complete unknown in the tennis world before the 20-year-old reached the 2009 U.S. Open semifinals, but in a cruelly ironic twist, this single-minded upstart gained a lot more media publicity when she was banned from the sport for a year last November for committing anti-doping violations.

Wickmayer was charged with failing to notify relevant anti-doping authorities of her whereabouts on three occasions in 2009, and when the initial decision was released, a devastated young woman openly wondered how her career would ever recover. A year without competition ran the risk of corroding her skills and preventing a rapid ascendancy from getting off the ground. Just as soon as she was making a dent on the WTA Tour, Wickmayer saw her hopes – and her life’s work – momentarily disintegrate in a sea of legalism.

In December, however, a woman barely out of her teens gained a reprieve, as the suspension against Wickmayer was lifted. This ravenous competitor hasn’t looked back since. The Belgian who might soon escape the shadows cast by Henin and Kim Clijsters won 11 main-draw tournament matches after her freedom was granted, and that total didn’t count three qualifying matches she won at Melbourne Park before the first round of the tournament began.

If she was an unknown a few months ago in New York, Wickmayer didn’t sneak under the radar in Australia. As she prepared to meet the greatest Belgian tennis player of all time, Wickmayer had the stage and the setting she wanted. A chance to take on a legend in a major is exactly what a rising star wishes for on the road to increased prominence and success. Women’s tennis watchers were eager to see how Yanina Wickmayer would hold up under the pressure.

She exceeded all expectations.

Wickmayer calmly and resolutely crushed the pill throughout this A-grade competition. Slugging from the ground and offering a worthy serve better than 90 percent of the WTA Tour, Wickmayer constantly kept Henin pinned behind the baseline and often dictated rallies.

It took all of Henin’s enormous skill and defensive capacities to keep Wickmayer at bay, and when – in a repeat of the Dementieva match – Henin faced double set point when serving at 5-6, 15-40, there was a strong possibility that Wickmayer would not only win admirers, but a fourth-round tennis match against a seven-time major champion.

Henin wouldn’t have any of it.

Just as she did in the second round, Henin swatted away her challenger’s pair of set points with ice-veins winners from both wings. She held for 6-all with the most resourceful tennis imaginable, and at 3-all in the tiebreak, she maxed out.

A penetrating Henin forehand forced a Wickmayer error. 4-3.

A blistering backhand down the line. 5-3.

A sizzling forehand down the line. 6-3.

A perfect serve and volley combo. 7-3.

Wickmayer could have been downcast after losing that set, but the youngster never stopped charging. She crushed Henin in a 29-minute second set with ruthless efficiency and tremendous tunnel vision which kept her from dwelling on what might have been. As the third set started, the awareness of Henin’s many on-court hours offered Wickmayer a more-than-legitimate chance of pulling off the upset.

That’s when Henin’s body clearly expressed not only the willingness, but the ability, to continue to perform.

The veteran gained an early break lead and held it throughout the final stanza. Henin served most of her four aces in this set and protected her service games with an efficiency not seen in her almost-as-compelling win over Dementieva. Wickmayer did indeed win over a lot of fans with a stellar performance; moreover, the 20-year-old in this fight won a majority of points (99 to 96).

Henin, though, won the one thing that really matters in any sport: the match itself.

Oh, what a bit of Belgian beauty Australian tennis fans saw on a sensational Sunday night.

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