Welcome Back, Henin: A True Champion

The backhand is back. The variety is back. The best women's tennis player in the world is back.

No, I'm not talking about Kim Clijsters. Two Belgian newspapers are reporting that Justine Henin will announce Tuesday that she is returning to the game.

Henin has become a spokesperson for UNICEF and said just four months ago that tennis was "truly a page that has been turned."

So what gives with women's tennis? Is the entire sport full of Brett Favres, who keep retiring, but can't stay away?

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Kim Clijsters, after 2 1/2 years on maternity leave, came back to win the U.S. Open this month. She followed Martina Hingis out of retirement, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and others.

But these women are going through the opposite of what Favre keeps doing. It's about fulfillment, and where you find it.

Let's get back to that in a minute.

Start with this: This is great for women's tennis. It's not that Henin is the most marketable player, but it's never good for a game when its best player walks away. You always wonder if the new champs are really worthy.

The game fell apart after Henin retired in May of 2008. Several players have held the No. 1 ranking since then, before falling apart emotionally. Only Serena Williams has shown the capacity to be a champion, but she simply won't work hard enough, or stay fit enough, to hold the top spot.

Dinara Safina is No. 1 now, and already in mid-collapse.

It has been an embarrassing time for women's tennis, topped off with the top players choking and falling apart at the U.S. Open.

Henin, if reports of her comeback are true, immediately becomes the favorite to win the French Open in May, and maybe even the Australian in January. She will push back the nervous women in the hierarchy and also force Williams to make a decision about commitment.

So the transformation of women's tennis is just about complete. In the past few months, the game will have seen the returns of Henin and Clijsters, the emergence of American teen Melanie Oudin, and also the return of Maria Sharapova, who had undergone shoulder surgery.

The top of the women's game had become overloaded with large Russian women pounding the ball with exactly the same style. Sharapova plays that style, but doesn't usually fold. Oudin's mix-and-match style of spins and paces led her to beat four straight Russians at the U.S. Open. Clijsters mixes up her game. And Henin, undersized like Oudin, will do anything to win.

"You kind of need to work your way into a position where you can still win matches even if you make a lot more mistakes, or you're not feeling the ball as well," Clijsters said at the Open. "I think some of the girls don't really have that now. I remember Justine, she was one who could mix her game up even if she was not playing well."

But back to Favre, and why so many 20-something women keep retiring from tennis and then coming back. I think Favre leaves because of the grind of a season, but then finds himself more afraid of time away from football than time in it. What will he do without football?

With many of the young women, it has more to do with committing their lives, from childhood, to one singular focus. They leave because of the beating on their minds and bodies, but also, because they aren't finding fulfillment. Henin and Clijsters went looking for more in life.

This year, Henin, who's 27, traveled to Cambodia, Congo and Denmark, according to the Associated Press, to learn about infant vaccinations and how they affect poor mothers and babies around the world. UNICEF plans to use Henin as a featured part of a campaign this fall.

"I have been able to discover so many things in my life after tennis," she said in a press conference for UNICEF. "You live in a bubble and in leaving it, you ask plenty of questions on plenty of issues."

Clijsters said that when she retired, she had other things "that I wanted to achieve as a woman and as a person."

Her husband, and her daughter, Jada, now travel with her on tour. And she said her life has balance and perspective: When she comes home after a match, her daughter doesn't care how it went.

I've been critical of Williams for not trying unless she's in a major, but credit her for finding other interests and not letting the game burn her out.

Maybe the tour needs to find a new system of scheduling to keep these young women around longer.

Her first time on tour, Henin reached the top, but felt the need to bulk up to withstand the beatings. Unhappy with that, she decided to come back to her previous size.

Then, she was gone.

Now, the game has its champion back. She was never the loudest or flashiest player. But tennis missed her.

E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com