Unstoppable: Henin wins ninth title of the year over Golovin

Belgian upholds unbeaten run, dating back to Wimbledon

FROM THE ZURICH OPEN - She may not have played the Australian Open in January, and her Wimbledon loss to Marion Bartoli will probably go down as the biggest upset of the season, but after winning her ninth title of the year on Sunday - one more than her previous record of eight trophies in 2003 - Justine Henin said she feels 2007 has been the best season of her career.

Just like in Stuttgart, Henin beat the red-hot Tatiana Golovin in the final in Zurich. She faced a 1-4 deficit in the first set, but won six straight games, before prevailing 6-4, 6-4.

Golovin, who was playing her first Tier I final of her career, said that she would be going out hitting bombs, but instead it was Henin who was constantly firing up on her opponent. “I did hit the ball pretty hard,” the No.1 said. “If you give her time, she can play really well. She likes to control the rallies. I just tried to keep the control and be aggressive.”

The turning point in the match came when Henin, as Golovin said, ‘got a little lucky’ on two shots, before breaking back at 4-2. At 15-all, Golovin moved around her backhand to power a forehand down the line, which looked like a clean winner. In an ultimate get, Henin pushed the ball back cross court, passing Golovin at the net. At 15-30, the Belgian hit the tape on a return of serve, but the ball dropped over the net for a winner. On her first break point, Henin stood by as Golovin hit a backhand down the line, which fell just millimetres wide.

In the previous game, Golovin had already missed a sitting forehand with Henin serving at 30-all, where she should have gone up breakpoint for a chance to take a 5-1 lead. Now, a few unlucky points later, Henin was back in the set, but more importantly, had sent out a big mental blow to her opponent.

Golovin never seemed to recover from losing her advantage. She lost serve again at 4-all, mainly because she hit a couple of ugly unforced errors. Henin claimed the opening set, after Golovin framed yet another backhand.

“I should have been able to finish off the set,” Golovin said. “But I was unable to do that and that kind of changed the momentum of the match.”

In the second set, Golovin managed to undo an early break of serve, but after Henin broke a second time at 1-all, the match was over for Tati. She overcame a 0-40 deficit serving at 1-3, but Henin didn’t face a single break point for the rest of the set, and served out the match with an ace down the tee at 5-4.

As both players said, the quality of the final was not as high as it was in Stuttgart. Henin was trying to be very aggressive, taking balls early and coming to the net, but her forehand was shaky again, like it was in her semifinal against Vaidisova. Golovin’s level dropped significantly after losing her edge in the first set, as she started to shank her backhand more often, and she failed to get a rhythm going on her forehand.

Despite the loss, Golovin will move up five positions to a career high ranking of No. 13. She will play in Linz next week, where she will have a shot at breaking the Top 10, as she has no points to defend at the Tier II event. Henin, who has now won 20 matches in a row, will take a two week break before the year-end championships in Madrid.