This Belgian Is Vanilla, but Her Game Is Not

Justine Henin-Hardenne, the top-seeded woman at the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament, waltzed through one of those early-round matches Monday that receives little attention and deserves even less. Her 6-0, 6-0 victory over Aiko Nakamura of Japan took 56 minutes and, by the time it ended, had nearly emptied the 16,100-seat Indian Wells Garden.

It wasn’t Henin-Hardenne’s fault that her opponent couldn’t play.

But it is unfortunate that her stature on the tour is often measured by things other than her results.

Those things include a somewhat bland post-match personality, exacerbated by a faulty grasp of English-language nuances. The French-speaking Henin-Hardenne, from Belgium, sticks to a pretty narrow range of topics in English, most of them tennis and few of them fresh.

A few years ago, at the WTA Championships in Los Angeles, she left in tears after being pressed by that noted tennis writer and general humanitarian, T.J. Simers of The Times, who wanted to know why she wore a watch when she played. Simers knew the answer: She wears it because she is paid to.

Simers had a column, as well as another notch in his belt, and Henin-Hardenne had, once again, confirmed her label of good player, dull personality.

She also has suffered through a series of injuries that took her from No. 1 in 2003 to No. 43 in ‘04, and that took up a lot of post-match yammer. Necessary, but dull stuff.

Her image took a large hit when she defaulted in the final of January’s Australian Open. She quit at 1-6, 0-2, handing the title to France’s Amelie Mauresmo, later citing a shoulder injury that forced her to take lots of anti-inflammatory medicine, which made her so ill she couldn’t continue. Recently, she has said she regrets having Mauresmo’s first Grand Slam title marred by her withdrawal and added that she shouldn’t have even taken the court in the first place.

Still, the press and public embrace Pete Sampras throwing up on the court much more than somebody saying no mas, especially in a Grand Slam final.

Despite all that, her results should get fair consideration in defining her, and there is one measure that is so telling, and so obscure, that even Henin-Hardenne wasn’t aware of it until told Monday.

It goes something like this: There are two people ever who have won all four major tennis titles -- the Australian, French, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- as well as an Olympic gold medal in singles. The two are married to each other, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

There is only one who has been close enough to have won all but one, and lost in the final of the other. It is not Lindsay Davenport, who has not won the French and has gotten only as far as the semifinals there. It is not Serena Williams, who has won all four majors and has won a gold medal in Olympic doubles, but has never played in Olympic singles.

It is Henin-Hardenne, who won the Olympic gold in Athens and has only a Wimbledon title left for her perfect resume. She lost the 2001 final to Venus Williams in three sets.

When told of her current place in tennis history, she said, “Wow.” Which was a pretty good English nuance.