It’s time to start talking about tonight’s match between Serena Williams and Justine Henin, the latest installment in what some of my favorite tennis experts consider to be the greatest rivalry going on the women’s side.
“Serena-Henin is the best,” said Jon Wertheim, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. “There’s some history there. They played three times already this year — Serena won one and saved a match point, Justine won at the majors.”
Making tonight’s contest even more attractive, both women are easily playing well enough at the moment to win the Open. As Wertheim put it: “Whoever has tickets for this match might as well consider that they have tickets for the final. It's hard to imagine that the winner of that match not winning the tournament.”
Beyond the epic Wimbledon match this year – where Serena was essentially playing with one hand, and on one leg – they played a bloodbath 2003 semifinal at the French, where Henin was acussed of bad sportsmanship, and Serena was booed off the French Open court.
Needless to say, I’ll have much more to say on this subject before, during (live commentary!) and after.
