Justine Henin looks back on her career and her sometimes distant image: “I must have frustrated journalists”

The Namuroise, seven Grand Slam titles, is also aware that she is no longer the same person as during her playing career: “Working at the academy teaches me a lot. When you’re a player, you only live for yourself, even if you have a big heart, at any given moment you’re in it, you only think about yourself. It’s also perhaps the only way to get to the top. The team is there to put you in the best conditions.”

And this has sometimes led to a somewhat distant image of Justine in her relationships with the media: “I must have frustrated journalists. I accept it because I had to protect myself to achieve my goals. Carlos played a big role in this. I have always had fragile health. Without having problems, I had things. In relation to what I was doing, and the energy it required. I could get sick quickly when I was in intense periods of work. I had to rest a lot and I couldn’t say yes to everything. The distance, the coldness that people saw in me was perhaps partly linked to that. But I remained authentic. When it was no, it was no. Not because I didn’t respect the work of others. It’s just that I was expected at a certain place sportingly, and I too was expecting a certain place. We had to make choices.”

In History: the day Justine Henin became world number one.