[Tennis] Rogers Cup Coverage: Belgian Doesn't Waffle

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The only guarantee about Sunday’s Rogers Cup final match was that a Belgian would win.

On Sunday afternoon, that guarantee was realized as Kim Clijsters pulverized comrade Justine Henin-Hardenne, 7-5, 6-1.

In a week mired by injuries, pull-outs, and another doubles championship for perennial player, Martina Navratilova (with partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld), the final match ended up in straight-set domination for Clijsters.

Things looked promising for Henin-Hardenne when she opened the game by breaking Clijsters but the first set was noticeably sluggish for both players.

Clijsters managed to even things up by breaking Henin-Hardenne in the second game of the first set and the theme of Clijsters being able to match anything that Henin-Hardenne put out remained prevalent through the match.

The tournament’s runner-up was anything but the calm that she is normally associated with in big-money matches. She played wildly and made 34 unforced errors in the loss. Continuing the theme of uncertainty, Henin-Hardenne looked more like a joker than a queen with the racquet on Sunday.

“The conditions were difficult,” Henin-Hardenne said, referring to the strong winds on the court. “It was hard for me to keep the rhythm, the wind didn’t help.”

The runner-up also said that she wasn’t herself for the majority of the game.

“My muscles were pretty tired today.”

Clijsters, who was reluctant to initially attend the Toronto tourney was obviously pleased with another victory on clay.

“I think I stayed focused and vey patient throughout the whole match,” Clijsters said. “You know, I’m playing well, and I think — I don’t think that I could have done much better with my preparation.

Clijsters clearly avoided the topic of her inability to win at the major Grand Slam tournaments.

“Well, there’s no monkey on my back,” she said. “I know I haven’t won a Grand Slam. But, you know, I’ve won a lot of other things, and I’ve been working very hard.”

In other Rogers Cup news, Martina Navratilova and Anna-Lena Groenefeld beat Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to capture the doubles title and Martina’s fifth in Canada.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.