Justine reclaims crown

ByEurosport

Published 10/06/2006 at 14:42 GMT

Justine Henin-Hardenne reclaimed her French Open crown on Saturday as she encountered few problems on her way to beating Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets 6-4 6-4. The victory represents her third Roland Garros victory and the fifth Grand Slam title of

The Belgian joins a very select club of women who have won back-to-back titles on the clay in Paris in the professional era. Only Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles have achieved the same feat.

TENNIS 2006 French Open final Henin-Hardenne

Image credit: Reuters

And the fifth seed continued her incredible record of not having dropped a set during the entire tournament as she shut out Kuznetsova with the loss of eight games.

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"I've suffered a lot. I did not sleep well in the past days," a relieved Henin-Hardenne said after the match.

"What made the difference today were the important points and the seventh game in the second set.

"Three titles, it's huge. I join great champions."

COMFORTABLE

The first set was fairly straight forward for the world number five as she broke Kuznetsova in the first game of that match and then again to take a 4-1 lead after a double fault from the Russian.

TENNIS 2006 French Open final kuznetsova

Image credit: Reuters

Henin-Hardenne looked comfortable against the Russian's power game, but as she has demonstrated already at this year's tournament, Kuznetsova does not lie down easily,

And she proved it again as she raced out of the blocks in the second set to break her opponent and take the first two games.

But the 2004 US Open champion is not the only one made out of stern stuff as Henin-Hardenne demonstrated by breaking back straight away.

2006 Henin Roland Garros final

Image credit: Reuters

And then it seemed just a question of when rather than if for the Belgian, as she broke again in the seventh game before taking the match after 96 minutes.

"I am disappointed because I have not been able to take my chances but Justine had a great match," said Kuznetsova.

"I was trying to play the way I wanted but I didn't expect that the ball would come so easy. Sometimes I was expecting rallies to be so much different.

"I had the chance to play inside the court and I had so many chances to go forward and play my forehand that I was just overdoing it."

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