According to Henin, the reason for her sudden stepping down was that, “much to her surprise, she no longer felt motivated to train and wanted to focus on her personal life.” Now I have to ask you, how could this be a surprise to her as well? Surely Henin was thinking about this for some time? So why now, when she had a more than decent chance of defending her Grand Slam title at the French Open in little over a month’s time? If she’s going to retire, why not do it while racking up one more victory?

The head of the WTA tour noted that “it’s probably not burnout. This isn’t an exasperated, frustrated player who needs a break.” Now maybe this is true, and Henin has certainly suffered some heavy defeats in recent months, one in particular being her lopsided loss against current world number two Maria Sharapova in this year’s Australian Open Quarter Final, a match worthy of a Final. However, Henin could take a page out of Sharapova’s book.

The Russian beauty spent most of last year nursing a shoulder injury while enduring some of her most heartbreaking losses. At times Sharapova must have surely felt like throwing in the towel and would rightly have been described as a player who is exasperated and frustrated and needed a break. Sharapova could have fully justified it in her mind to call it a day. But what did she do? She kept on going with her never-say-die attitude and lo and behold, at the end of this annus horribilus, Sharapova was more than able to hold her own against the formidable Belgian. To top it off, Sharapova started the following year on a high, winning the Australian Open in style and laying waste to virtually all her opponents this year. Sharapova has been the player of note so far in 2008 and now will assume the mantle of world number one

Surely there was more left in Henin’s 5’5 tank? The sport will definitely be worse off without her. The most startling thing you have to consider is that If players are retiring by age 25 or younger (and Kim Clijsters immediately comes to mind) then are we to assume that Sharapova, who recently turned 21 last month only has two to four years left in her (Sharapova has stated that she doesn’t see herself playing until she’s thirty)?

Does womens’ tennis have a limited shelf life?  Is it no longer the sport it used to be with players like Navratilova or Steffi Graf who could win Grand Slam after Grand Slam for years on end? At the moment, the only player on the women’s tour who has anything close to the number of Grand Slam titles as those legends is Serena Williams, and even she has other interests outside of tennis. We may have to learn to accept that the days of multiple Grand Slam titles is over unless Sharapova manages to win a cache of them this year and in the next few years, but so far, although we’ve expected greatness from her, she has only been an even-numbered year Grand Slam winner. That being the case, 2009 or 2011 could be the year Sharapova announces her retirement.

I hope you enjoy the ride.

MLT