World No. one Justine Henin finally realises her life-long dream of winning a title on home turf with a straight sets win over Italian Karin Knapp ANTWERP: Justine Henin fulfilled a career-long dream as she won her first title at home in Belgium as the Diamond Games closed out a nine-year WTA run on Sunday.
The top seed dismantled Italian challenger Karin Knapp 6-3 6-3 in 90 minutes. A full-house crowd in excess of 15,000 revelled in the success of their world number one at an event which has been wiped from the women’s calendar from 2009 in a scheduling shake-up.
Henin, who lost a heartbreak Australian Open quarterfinal a month ago to Maria Sharapova while carrying a painful knee injury, had made it her mission to lift the home crown. She prevailed easily over the number 47 Italian playing in her first career final. Knapp,has yet to beat a top ten player.
“It’s so great to win at home in Belgium,” said Henin. “That was really my goal this week and I’m so happy I was able to do it. I’ve had tough matches but came through. This is a very emotional moment for me.”
Henin finally had a more straight-forward win after struggling in her matches all week. But it still did not go entirely to script. Henin broke twice for a 5-2 lead in the first set but dropped serve in the eighth game as Knapp kept the contest alive at 3-5.
Henin quickly righted herself, claiming the opener after 40 minutes on her third opportunity as Knapp put an approach into the net. In the second set, Henin broke for 4-2 and closed the encounter on her first match point.
The Belgian came good on her third appearance in Antwerp after a 2002 final and 2003 semi-final. She returned home to play for the first time in five years and kept the tournament on its feet financially as more than 100,000 fans came through the doors.
Henin’s victory was her second title of 2007 after Sydney in January. She will next play in Dubai in a week after pulling out of next week’s WTA event in Doha, which will cost her at least 125,000 dollars in year-end bonus pool money.
