Forty Deuce

Air Quotes: WTF Does That Even Mean?

“Part of the reason I lost to Bartoli in the semi-final was because I was scared to face Venus in the final.”

-- Justine, on being scared of Venus at Wimbledon.  Uh...welcome back.

Welcome To The Top 10, Justine

Justine beat Flavia 64 64.  If this were any weekend other than Davis Cup weekend, I'm sure the commies would be creaming themselves.

 

"Yay, Carlos!  We did it!"

I Could Get Excited For This

Dude.  We get it.  You retired to find a man and have a baby.  You didn't.  Now you're back and you're engaging in some form of performance art.  We get it.  THE BABY AIN'T THERE.

Justine won her exo over Flipkens 64 64, and word on the Twitter Street is that she looked pretty good.  Her "new" serve has a higher toss.  Not sure how that gets you a more powerful serve other than the fact that you have more time to load and transfer your weight, but we'll see.  She'll play Flavia tomorrow, who beat The Cone 64 60.  So...Alize's doing well...

Help me, Carlos Wan Kenobi.  You're my only hope!

Exos Galore

This weekend, Justine, Flipkens, The Cone, and Flavs take to the court in an exo in Belgium.  This marks Justine's "return" or something.  So of course she'll play Flipkens, The Cone and Flavs will play the other match, and the winner will play the final.

I would *so* pay for a Justine/Flavia stream.

Oh, and Masha beat Gisela 61 63 in Chile.  So...good job, Gisela.

Kim Clijsters Is A Conniving Media Whore

Or so some would say.  James LaRosa tweeted this article this morning, which kinda makes me feel bad for Justine:

Sports editorials largely hailed the return of “the greatest Belgium athlete in history” when she announced her return after a 16-month self-imposed retirement.

But just days later the novelty of having two top level players back on the circuit has waned as newspapers ganged up en masse on Henin, comparing her unfavourably to Clijsters.

French-speaking Henin from southern Wallonia suffers from an image problem in her country while the nation has been gripped by Clijsters-mania since Dutch-speaking Kim Clijsters returned after three years off to have a baby to win the US Open.

The French language ‘Le Soir’ slammed the “incredible media circus” surrounding Henin’s return. A poll on the newspaper’s website found that 91 percent of those questioned estimated that the press had “made too much” of Henin over the past week.

It really does remind me a bit of how the Serbian media treat Ana and JJ and the need for media and fans to constantly pit them against each other. 

You know, it's pretty awesome that for a small country you've produced two great players (ok, fine, "good" players in Serbia's case).  And I have news for you: You *can* be fans of *both*.

No really!  Try it!

Pic This: Welcome Back, Justine.

Yup, she's back, and she brought her herp lip with her.

Justine did an expressive mime cryptically entitled "Jelena Jankovic's reaction to the news."

Oh, are we doing that now, too?  Move over Dina. 

Bianca: Umm, I think I like the white shirt better.
Joey: Yeah, it's-it's more...
Bianca: Pensive?
Joey: Damn, I was going for thoughtful.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again. Shady's Back. Tell A Friend.

Confirmed.

Justine says a fire has been relit (Kim!) and while Kim's success may have had a subconscious impact, it wasn't the driving force (riiiiight).  Carlos will be by her side once again and he says that the main reason she's coming back is to take another shot at Wimbledon.

"These past 15 months have been enriching... but there is a flame that has been re-lit. I thought it had been put out forever."

So Justine is retiring from Manhunt (ahem) 2010 and will hit the courts.  Sorry, Dina.  You aren't the standard bearer for the asexual Competition line anymore.  Bring back the capsleeves and mock turtlenecks, Adidas! All hail the Queen!

"Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better..."

Oh, like this is a shock.

Justine's apparently coming back, y'all.  She's going to announce it on Tuesday and word is that Carlos will, once again, be by her side.  So the woman who introduced the "ZOMG I HAVE TO LOOK AT MY COACH ALL THE TIME" winning technique that Dinara has now perfected will back on the circuit in 2010.  Boy, Australia's gonna be something.  Tom Perrotta's got some interesting thoughts on why it'll be harder for her to come back as compared to Kim.

Can we really be all that surprised by this?  I think it's actually funny that Kim's USO win, at least for me, totally takes the wind out of the sails of Justine's announcement.  Though I've had mad respect for her, I've never been a Justine fan.  So I'm pretty apathetic towards this whole thing. 

Well, that's not true.  I'm not apathetic.  I'm affirmatively sad.  Because who knows if we'll ever get this stuff again:

Pic This: So Wrong.

New Ringtone, Bitches.

Love the Spy vs. Spy black and white wardrobe coordination. Makes the whole thing so...what's the word...SUSPICIOUS.

Allez!

Hey, look who was back at Roland Garros!

I'm totally willing to accept that I may be Justine Henin's only fan, but I miss her. Her decision to retire last year was obviously the right one, though-- she seems happy and settled. She was on hand today for the naming of "Allée Justine Henin", which I can only imagine is a pathway in the complex, as in, "Hey, where's that Häagen-Dazs booth?" "Oh, right down there on Allée Justine Henin."  

Nice to see you, Justine.  Good luck with that reality show and fixing DR Congo.

UPDATED: "Reunited and It Feels...A Little Awkward"

Before there were the Serbian Sisters, there was the even odder coupling of the Belgian Sisters.  And boy, these girls were even more awkward with each other than the Itches.  Anywho, they reunited this week at some Gala where Justine got an award.  Shocker.

Why does Kimmie look 40? 

Is she going to be the new member of The Desperate Housewives of Orange County?  I mean, a tat?  Really?

(Let's ignore the fact that she's sitting on a bench upholstered with astroturf.  Let's set that aside.) 

Meanwhile, Justine's been busy in her 9 month retirement.  Proving that she is ever the overambitious overachieving uberwoman, she's somehow popped out two pre-adolescent boys already.  You go, Justine!

How much do you want to bet one of them is named "Carlos"?

UPDATED: Well I wasn't that far off.  Apparently those are Carlos' two kids.

Air Quotes: Sounds Pretty Emphatic To Me.

“No, no competition is over for me. For me, it’s definitely over.  When I took my decision I knew it was forever. So I don’t say I will never be back for an exhibition or for another event in the future. But for me (playing) on the Tour? Yeah, it’s in the past and I won’t come back. I made the right decision and I stick to my decision. I will never change my mind about that decision.”

-- Justine Henin, on the (im)possibility of a comeback.