The Belgium world No 1 arrived in Athens having just recovered from a viral infection and had only won one match in four months. She hadn’t competed at all since May when, as defending champion, she was knocked out of the French Open in the second round by little-known Italian Tathiana Garbin.
However, she rediscovered her battling spirit at the Games, where she put together six victories and only dropped one set on her way to the title.
The dropped set came in her semi-final against No 3 seed Anastasia Myskina on Friday night, when Henin-Hardenne trailed 5-1 in the third set before rallying to win 8-6.
Myskina, of Russia, didn’t recover and lost the bronze medal match yesterday to unseeded Alicia Molik of Australia, 6-3 6-4.
‘Emotionally, I was drained,’ Myskina said. ‘I didn’t have any gas left. I couldn’t find any motivation.’
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That never seems to be a problem for Henin-Hardenne, who did everything right against Mauresmo.
She outslugged the Frenchwoman from the baseline on long exchanges, sneaking up to the net every so often for crisp volleys. She returned superbly, breaking Mauresmo in the first and last game of the opening set, and again for a 2-0 edge in the second. Henin-Hardenne’s fitness and focus were tested in that game, when Mauresmo deflected five break points. But on the sixth, Henin-Hardenne smashed a cross-court forehand into a corner and Mauresmo’s desperate stab forehand drifted 10ft out. In the men’s bronze medal match, Fernando Gonzalez won Chile its first ever medal yesterday with an epic 6-4 2-6 16-14 win over American Taylor Dent.
Basketball
THE all-star team of the United States crashed to their second shock defeat in the men’s tournament yesterday when a late shooting spree by Sarunas Jasikevicius propelled Lithuania to a 94-90 victory. Once held in awe by the rest of the basketball world, the Americans, who had already lost to Puerto Rico, were up by three points with two minutes and 47 seconds left before Jasikevicius hit a succession of three-pointers. America must now beat Angola tomorrow to qualify for the quarter-finals Athletics
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BRITAIN’S Darren Campbell suffered disappointment in the 100m heats when he failed to qualify for the second round.
Campbell, who has been dogged by a minor hamstring injury, finished fourth in a time of 10.35sec but failed to progress as a fastest loser.
However, Campbell, far from being downhearted by his exit, said: ‘I needed to try out my hamstring and I am confident it is healing well. ‘I nearly made it through and now I am looking forward to the 200 metres.’
Gymnastics
PAUL HAMM, who become the first American to win the men’s all-round gymnastics title, should not have been awarded the gold medal, the sport’s governing body ruled yesterday.
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However, Hamm will keep his medal despite a scoring error that robbed South Korean Yang Tae-young of the title, the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) said.
The FIG rules do not allow for a protest against judges’ marks. The judges’ marks have to be accepted as a final decision and cannot be changed. Three technical judges were suspended after South Korea’s protest over the difficulty level score of Yang was upheld. Had Yang been credited with the correct difficulty score on the parallel bars, he would have finished with 57.874, 0.051 of a point ahead of his American rival.
Football
IRAQ’S footballers extended their fairytale run at the Games yesterday, beating Australia 1-0 to reach the semi-finals of the men’s tournament.
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Qatar-based midfielder Emad Mohammed struck for the war-ravaged nation with a spectacular overhead kick in the 64th minute. Iraq, whose only previous Olympic medal was a weightlifting bronze at the 1960 Rome Games, face either Paraguay or South Korea for a place in the final.
Italy’s Cesare Bovo headed an extra-time winner as they defeated Mali 1-0.
Italy now face either Costa Rica or Argentina in the semi-finals.
Hockey
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GREAT BRITAIN’S distant medal hopes in the men’s event were ended after a 4-1 defeat by world champions Germany in Pool A yesterday.
The last semi-final place from Pool A will go down to the wire, as Germany will be guaranteed a place if they avoid defeat against South Korea, while Spain should join them as they play minnows Egypt.
Beach volleyball
PAUL and Martin Laciga of Switzerland beat the Brazilian pair Benjamin Insfran and Marcio Araujo in the knockout rounds of beach volleyball yesterday. The Swiss brothers defeated the second seeds 21-19 19-21 15-12.