CHARLESTON, S.C. -- It was a strange match in the Family Circle Cup championship on Sunday as Serena Williams' perfect run ended with a loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-3, 6-4.

Serena Williams started off looking good with a 3-0 lead and then lost six games in a row. She only won a handful of points in those six games. I just don't remember her doing that -- especially since she's started this great run.

	Pam's Picks
	Shriver Former WTA Tour pro Pam Shriver is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis at the Family Circle Cup. Shriver, a tennis analyst for ESPN, was ranked as high as No. 3 in singles play. She won 21 singles and 112 doubles crowns, including 22 Grand Slam titles.

Henin-Hardenne just sat back waiting for Williams to make errors. After the way Williams played against Lindsay Davenport the day before, I would never have picked Williams to lose today. She can lose to Justine Henin-Hardenne, but not the way she did today.

The word is that Williams was pretty dismissive of the loss in the press conference afterward -- acting like it wasn't a big deal.

But the win does boost No. 4 Henin-Hardenne to even a slightly higher level though her rank stays the same. The Belgians continue to climb. Kim Clijsters is projected to replace Venus Williams as the No. 2 player when the rankings come out on Monday. Henin-Hardenne did what no one has done since fellow Belgian Clijsters last November. As a matter of fact, Williams' only losses in the past six months have been to Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne.

It's good for Serena Williams to get the pressure off instead of going into the French Open and Wimbledon season with a long undefeated run. Once she's dealt with the loss, she'll need to keep focused on staying healthy and strong. She's prone to problems with knee tendinitis. She just needs to be sure not to give any hungry opponents an opportunity to beat her by letting her conditioning slip.

And although this is a Tier I tournament, she'd much rather have the first loss of the year here than a few other places on the tour like the Australian or French Open.