TENNIS LEGENDS VODCAST WITH JUSTINE HENIN

What are your thoughts on Simona’s resiliance in losing three major finals to finally win one?
Well I think I admire the way Simona could deal with it. I lost one but to lose 3 in such difficult situations because when you look back the first one for Simona was against Sharapova but then the one against Ostapenko I guess was really painful. Then you built a really strong come back in Australia having tough matches but still loose. So even if you are in the positive emotion the time to come back even losing that first set against Stephens, you need to be very strong mentally. So I admire that a lot. I lost my first Grand Slam final against Venus. I was very young, I was 19. A few weeks before I lost in the semifinals of Roland Garros I was winning 6/1 4/2  15-40 on the serve of Kim Clijsters and lost that semifinal. So that was a painful one but you need to stand in those moments. I was wondering Simona when you lose the first set in that final do you have the feeling do you think at a certain point “ok it’s gonna be the same story again”.

What do you think of Simona’s mental strength?
We talk here about what makes really great champions and great players also mentally. And I think it’s great for the young players also right now to understand how they have to invest for the future also with the words of Darren. The fact that he said “ok you fought you proved you learnt and if you can learn from this you can come back stronger”. And defeat sometimes is not the end but here I have to admit after 3 times the way it happened it’s quite impressive. If we can look back into the history again this not probably a lot of times where you find this kind of situation and it means that mentally you have to be very strong someway and something probably.

What was finally the breakthrough for you to get what it takes to win Majors?
Well I was dreaming of this for my whole life and not so many people believed that I could really make it because of my size also. That’s something we can share together Simona. And when I was a little girl I will always remember the first final I played in a tennis club. Everyone was laughing because the girls were much taller than I was. And I always had a little revenge in myself. I had to prove. It’s not what you see that are gonna be the tools, you cannot make judgement like that and I can show you how I can use my weapons, how to show you that I can still be very good physically, because when we’re not that tall like Simona or I you need to be physically fit you know ready to run fast need to be quick you need to anticipate you need to have a good vision of the game. If you play with your qualities it’s something that can be a big advantage.

But even if I really believed and it was my dream that I could make it I was missing all the time something against Kim especially, against Serena for example and that we had a big discussion with Carlos Rodriguez, my coach, and he just explained me with simple words: “do you want to be a very good player, you know always be close, or do you want to take the risk to make the difference?” Because when you really give 100% you still have the risk that you lose at the end because your opponent was better but I will always remember that conversation and I said “ok I’m gonna take the risk to give everything I have to go for that shot, to have this ambition”. And it started to make the difference because I could compete with Serena for example when everyone was a bit scared to play against Serena. And I said: “now I have to develop my self-conviction that I can beat her”. So, I worked a lot with my mental self-conviction I would say and I’m sure Simona share that also.

Justine Henin was speaking exclusively to Eurosport's Tennis Legends podcast alongside Simona Halep. Download the full podcast from Thursday evening (14 May).