This is surely the match everybody was expecting to happen when Justine Henin came back to the circuit this season. This was easily the biggest rivalry on WTA over the past decade and it’s not a huge surprise that the first Grand Slam of this decade has in the final these two players. However, Justine Henin isn’t still playing at her best and I don’t believe she will have the weapons to counter Serena Williams, who will show up big time as every time she plays a Grand Slam final.

There is no better big-match player than Serena Williams in the tennis world nowadays. If there were any doubts about that, facts don’t lie: she is 11-3 on Grand Slam finals, with just two defeats against her sister Venus Williams and one in Wimbledon against Maria Sharapova. Serena may lack motivation to play well in some tournaments and in the early rounds of Grand Slams, but when the big match comes, Serena Williams shows up every single time. And don’t worry because this won’t be an exception, because there is no doubt that Serena will want to beat Henin on this Grand Slam really bad. She is playing very well on this tournament, barring a absolute no-show for a set and a half against Azarenka, but even in that match, Serena showed that she has the heart of a lion by coming back from 4-6 0-4 down, with an unbelievable level of tennis in the rest of the match to beat Azarenka by 4-6 7-6 6-2. She also had another brilliant performance against Na Li in terms of clutch tennis by winning that match in two tie-breaks, even though the Chinese played one of the best matches of her career. Serena is moving well, hitting well the ball from both wings and most important than that, she is serving like no other player has ever served in the history of WTA: serving 39 aces on her last three matches is ridiculous on women’s tennis and it’s even more impressive, as Serena is serving aces in the really important points of her matches. Expect the same to happen in this match, as Serena knows how to bring the best of her when it really matters.

On the other side, Justine Henin has been surely impressive to be on a Grand Slam final on her second tournament after her comeback, but she is not playing as good as Serena is right now. Not at all. You may look at her semi final result and think that she was amazing, but Jie Zheng basically didn’t show up in that match. The truth is that Henin is still struggling a bit, especially on her service games by committing a large number of double faults. Also she has been struggling in maintaining her baseline consistency, especially on her backhand wing and Serena will make sure that she will punish Henin’s flashy backhand. Henin was clearly exposed by the powerful ground strokes of Kleybanova, Wickmayer and Petrova, three players who had Henin on the ropes, but couldn’t capitalize due to their lack of experience, fitness and overall mentality to make the upset. Well, Serena won’t have any problem in putting Henin away if she sees herself on a winning position and that’s what I expect in here. Even though Henin has been playing well, she will simply get outplayed by the amazing level that Serena will bring to the court today, giving the clear upperhand on this match to Serena. The American will also hold serve much easily than the Belgian and I have no doubts that Serena should be a clear favorite on this match, something that she isn’t and so, I’ll be taking her to win this match on a Double Dime Selection.