Justine Henin exclusive: Seven-time Grand Slam Champion on pressure, passion and future tennis stars
Justine Henin is a legendary figure in tennis, one of the game’s true icons.
A former Belgian world No. 1 ranked for 117 weeks, she amassed seven Grand Slam titles (four French
Opens, two US Opens, one Australian Open), an Olympic gold medal, and became a symbol
of mental fortitude and technical elegance.
Today, she is a sought-after Tennis speaker, sharing her remarkable journey and lessons
from the world’s grandest courts with audiences everywhere.
Whether mentoring academy students, guiding professionals, or inspiring organisations, Justine brings the same deliberation and passion that defined her career.
In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Justine opens up about her unwavering belief in dreams, the power of mental resilience, and what it takes to support the champions of tomorrow.
Q: As Founder and President of the Justine Henin Tennis Academy, how important is it to encourage and support the next generation of tennis players?
Justine Henin: “It is very important to me, and we can see in the time that we live right now
with this sanitary crisis that sport can have a big influence in a lot of people’s lives. It’s not
everything, and not everyone has to do sports to be happy or to be in balance, you know.
“But our philosophy is not only the high level, the top level, you know, because we know
champions – you don’t have so many champions.
“You have different kinds of goals and different kinds of stages. You can become professional, sometimes you want to become the best, and not everyone can become the most and not everyone can become professional, of course, in sport.
Stay realistic
“Our philosophy is to guide the student and the player into his or her project, always to stay realistic but to make sure that we can contribute to the development of the player and the human being.
“It’s very important for us because we believe that sport can give a lot of things in life and bring a lot of balance, and the values that most of the time are in sport. I really defend that a lot because I think you learn – it’s an amazing school of life.
“I stopped school when I was 16. I wouldn’t say that to my kids, or to the students of theacademy of course.
“It’s very good to combine because you need that security, and of course today a lot of things have to change. You can imagine your school differently than in the past, and certainly in this time right now.
Amazing experience
“But I stopped school when I was 16, and I was a good student. But yeah, travelling for tennis, it’s been an amazing experience, and how many things I learned about myself: to be responsible, to be able to count on myself, and not finding excuses.
“In an individual sport it’s very strong – you have to face yourself.
“So, we try to work on that and many other things of course, but to become responsible adults – that’s the goal for everyone. Yes, it’s important to send messages, even if it’s small and we can’t make the difference, but we try to bring something more, to build the experience of the athletes.”
READ MORE: How Match Point Competitions works: The simple guide
Q: Tennis is one of the most high-pressure sports in the world. What is the secret to staying calm and performing under such immense pressure?
Justine Henin: “When you have the chance to find a guide, as a coach or different kinds of people around you to help you in this journey, you’re very lucky. It’s been my case. I’ve always had the feeling I was in a good environment.
“There is probably a little bit of chance, but also, it’s a question of trusting the process. For me it was really important: if I go into this, I give my confidence and I trust what I put in place.
Trust the process
“Sometimes you have to question yourself and change or adjust things, but to trust the process is really important.
“To stay calm… I am not really calm inside. Now I’m calmer than I was in the past. My natural state is really to be anxious, but I could control that a lot during my career.
“Of course, the stress is there, the pressure is there.
“If you want to have no pressure in your life, you don’t choose sport at high level because the pressure is going to be all the time.
“You play a match and, as a competitor, you want to win, of course – and you don’t know what’s going to happen. You have to accept it.
Visualisations
“I was using a lot of visualisations. It was really a strong tool that I was using before matches, but not only before matches – even sometimes during long training periods.
“I used it to project myself on positive things. When I was nervous, I thought it’s normal, I’m nervous, I feel it, so I need to think it’s normal, because it is. That’s the first thing: to accept it. Then I deal with it.
“I really tried to visualise before every match only positive thing. I was scared, but while I was trying to visualise, you know – a winner in forehand or a serve-and-volley – I was seeing myself being really aggressive in my game.
“I imagined I was winning the match, even saying thank you to the umpire, to the crowd, to everyone, as the winner. I was really putting myself in something positive in my mind.
“It’s not that the stress wasn’t there anymore – it’s just that I had less energy to give to my fears. I was focused on something positive, and this is how I tried to control the fact that I was nervous.
“It was really something powerful for me during my whole career.”
This exclusive interview with Justine Henin was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
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