Henin downs Golovin for ninth title of season

Updated: October 21, 2007, 9:34 AM ET
Reuters

By Mark Ledsom

ZURICH, Oct 21 - World number one Justine Henin secured her ninth WTA title of the season on Sunday, beating French teenager Tatiana Golovin 6-4 6-4 in the Zurich Open final.

The Belgian has won all but four of the 13 tournaments she has entered this year and is now unbeaten in 20 matches -- her last loss coming against Marion Bartoli in July's Wimbledon semi-finals.

"It's been the best season of my career and to win my ninth title of the year is pretty amazing," Henin said in an on-court interview.

"I needed a bit of time to come into the match today as Tatiana was putting me under a lot of pressure but slowly, but surely I came back."

Golovin, the 19-year-old world number 18 who had lost her three previous meetings with Henin, made an aggressive start to Sunday's opening set and was rewarded with an early 3-1 lead.

Henin needed a stroke of good fortune to level after a lucky net-cord bounce gave her a chance to break back.

She duly converted that break point after forcing Golovin wide and was handed a further decisive break when the French youngster hit three unforced errors to fall 4-5 behind.

Golovin called for an injury time-out but it had no apparent effect on Henin's composure with the Belgian serving out for the set and then breaking ahead at the start of the second.

Golovin threatened a fight back after managing an immediate re-break but then dropped serve once more to fall 2-1 behind with what proved to be the last break of the match.

"She's absolutely the best," said Golovin, after losing her second final against Henin in the space of three weeks.

"She's so solid, but she has also been a great inspiration to me, and the more I play against top players like Justine the more I hope to learn."

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index

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