TORONTO – Whenever Roger Federer plays a tournament in Canada, the headline in the next day’s ‘Roger’s Cup’ newspaper headline is almost guaranteed. But after the Swiss player’s shocking defeat at the hands of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic earlier this week, journalists might be better served to start titling their stories ‘Justine’s Cup.’
The ATP #1 player in the world is the clear favorite at the women’s Rogers Cup tournament that is currently being played in Toronto, especially in a field that has lost marquee players including Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters.
On Monday, Henin answered questions about her participation in the tournament and said that there isn’t any one in particular that she looked forward to facing and that she wasn’t concentrating on anyone specifically.
“I don’t pay a lot of attention, I know who I can beat” she said. “I don’t like to look too far because usually we have a lot of surprises.”
The Belgium-born blonde said that her primary focus was to keep her top rank.
“My goal from the beginning of the year was to try and stay as the #1 player in the world and having to do that is just to win matches, no matter who I have to face.”
Familiar with most of her top competition at the Rogers Cup, Henin mused that there wasn’t anyone that she was particularly interested in playing.
“You play who you have to play,” Henin said. “Sometimes I had very tough draws in the past and I won the tournament. Sometimes I had better draws and it didn’t went [sic] well.”
Given the withdrawals, Henin’s main competition in the tournament include Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
