Henin To Play The Proximus Diamond Games

Written by Walter Calluy
01/10/08 Antwerp, Belgium – Justine Henin will come to the Diamond Games after all. Serena Williams also confirmed her entry. Organiser Bob Verbeeck is very pleased by Justine’s decision.

Justine Henin had many doubts after an absence of several years from this tournament. In 2002 she played the final of the 1st edition of this WTA-tournament and lost to Venus Williams. In 2003 she was beaten by Kim Clijsters in the semi-final and in 2004 Justine retired at the very last moment.
Since then Henin skipped the tournament in favour of the Middle-East WTA tournaments.
When Clijsters retired from the tour, the organisers made a lot of effort convincing Justine Henin to attend and finally the latter could be convinced.
The competition will be tough for Justine since 7 of the top 10 of players will attend including Serena Williams, Tatiana Golovin, Daniela Hantuchova ad Anna Chakvetadze all signed up already. Defending champion Amélie Mauresmo has not confirmed yet..
It will be the last time this tournament will be on the WTA-tour.
Belgian fans much moved
On her website Justine Henin claims that it was the Belgian crowd that convinced her to come to Antwerp and play at the Proximus Diamond Tournament. She was touched by the many requests to attend the last edition of the Belgian tournament.
Because Henin plays, the tournament will take place again in the “Sportpaleis”. Without a Belgian topplayer the tournament would have moved to the “Lotto Arena” nearby.
Henin will play her 1st match on Thursday 14th February at 19.30 hrs CET.