Retired tennis queen Justine Henin is about to take up her racquet once again a year after she walked away from the sport, but there is no chance she will make a shock return to the ciruit.
Retired tennis queen Justine Henin is about to take up her racquet once again a year after she walked away from the sport, but there is no chance she will make a shock return to the ciruit.
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"No, No !" she quickly replied when asked if there was any chance she might follow the example of fellow Belgian and former rival Kim Clijsters by coming out of retirement.
"I only played maybe three or four times in the year, and that was a lot, but I had surgery on my knee last October so I couldn't do that much.
"I have some plans to play a few exhibitions in a few months.
"I don't need the competition anymore to be happy, I have the adrenaline in another way in my life and that's good enough for me."
The soon-to-be 27-year-old from Liege, who won four times in five years here from 2003, was back at Roland Garros to inaugurate a walkway named in her honour and she took the time out to speak about her new lifestyle.
Knee surgery apart, that has involved setting up and working for her charitable foundations, doing some TV and film work and honing her media skills.
Above all though she says being away from tennis has allowed her to find stability and inner peace in a personal life that has been rocked too often over the last decade with family tragedy and romantic letdowns.
"Trust me, this transition period is difficult and complex for any athlete," she said.
"So one year, that's not a lot. I still rely on the people around me. I live a very simple life as before, but I'm more often back home. That's good.
"But I don't think I'm missing tennis. I think I took all the benefits that tennis could give me, and I have a feeling that I gave tennis everything I had.
"I need to have new challenges. I need to prove things to myself. Really very basic things. I don't want to become an ordinary young woman, but I want to be back to a normal life, because, you know, living on the tour with all the traveling around the globe, that's not reality.
"So I'm rediscovering the world with other eyes."
Turning to the current state of women's tennis, which has been bereft of a dominant player since she called it a day, Henin said she had devoted little time to following what was going on during the last 12 months.
"But I know who has been No 1 and the fact that some players are No 1 and haven't won a Grand Slam which I think is quite sad.
"But things are probably going to move on and I think for (Dinara) Safina (the current top player) it's maybe time for her to go to the next step."
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