The Evolution of Justine Henin: New! Improved! Now with 7 GS!

At 5-foot-5 and ¾”, 126 pounds after a hearty meal, Justine Henin has always been an awful lot of product in a small package.

Lately, though, it seems as though she’s been revamped and relaunched.

Winning her second major of 2007, after a year in which she dumped her husband (and his name) and reconciled with her long-estranged family, Henin has demonstrated herself to be a new person on and off the court—and a better player. Suddenly she’s no longer the insular, aloof and occasionally bitter young woman who wouldn’t let the world in.

Henin, who lost her mother to intestinal cancer at age 12, spent most of her career so inwardly focused that she appeared wholly uninterested in opening up to the cameras and crowds. She seemed to use inner turmoil as fuel, propelling her small frame to success in a big girl’s game.

Now, the world No. 1 pronounces herself at peace, content with her personal life, and her sanguine state of mind has led to a new, calm confidence on the court. Henin won seven of the 11 tournaments she entered this year.

The mighty little Belgian, Henin 2.0, still has all the gravitas, but none of the competing agita.

Henin unhyphenated is like the rollout of a new, cutting-edge computer that has amped up the power, even as it grows smaller. Her inner hard drive now operates more smoothly, more efficiently and more quietly. Henin’s versatile game remains just as innovative, sleek and well designed as ever, making the most of its tiny package.

Henin, the first woman to take on and take down both Williams sisters in a major and win the whole thing, is the Apple computer of the women’s tour. An underdog who has gone up against the big players—the IBMs and the Dells, if you will—and emerged triumphant.

The Belgian has accumulated seven Giga-Slams, and suddenly it’s she, not the Williamses or Sharapova, whom many are predicting will produce additional breakthroughs. Henin has notched one more Slam than Venus and is just one behind Serena. Perhaps it will be Henin, the unlikely mighty mite, who enters the ranks of the giants of the game. Her coach, Carlos Rodriguez, told her she has “the possibility to be the champion of champions.”

“You can achieve 10, 12, 13 [majors],” he said. “It’s up to you.”

Size has always been the only thing that Henin has lacked. Since she first overcame early nerves and captured her first major in 2003, she’s been a constant model of grit, determination and fight. She’s always had an outsize heart in that little body.

Henin’s game is a remarkable package of fluidity and variety of shotmaking. She plays artistic tennis—that one-handed backhand is as pulchritudinous a weapon as is found in the game—but also relentless, aggressive tennis. It’s that quality, in addition to the power she generates from preternatural timing, that belie her diminutive stature.

Though one would expect Henin to be a fan favorite, the undersized underdog in this modern game of 6-foot, leggy and muscular bruisers, Henin herself hasn’t made that easy. Fans had a hard time warming to her, finding Justine’s demeanor, if not her tennis, jejune. For years, only tennis purists seemed to appreciate her; they overlooked her brittle exterior and occasional bouts of questionable sportsmanship while they waxed poetic at her incredible defense and unparalleled ballstriking. And her willful defiance of brutes across the net.

Henin reunited with her father and siblings earlier this year after separating from her husband. The spark was an automobile accident that left her brother, David, in a coma. Henin visited the hospital when he woke and reconnected with her family.

Said Henin, “I'm just feeling happy. And the fact that I have my family back helps for sure a lot, my family back in my life. They give me a lot of support. I'm feeling in peace with myself, and that's very important feeling for me because I hate to fight with people.”

Henin’s emotional rapprochement and public thawing of her persona have, rather than rob her of the fuel to play focused, championship tennis, freed her to play with fewer inhibitions and fears.

“I do prefer when it's calm, when it's normal, and it is right now. It's much better in my life. So I can imagine there's a little impact on my tennis,” said Henin.

The guts of the machine are the same. But the new version is a definite upgrade.