Bad health’s been a recurring issue for the Belgian, off the tour for months at a time in 2004 and 2005 because of illness or injury. So she could be forgiven for feeling a tad nervous heading into this final, suffering through sleepless nights and worrying about whether her game would hold up for one more match.

With the temperature in the 80s, and spectators flapping hand fans like metronomes across the stands, the match began in the oddest of ways.

On the second point, Henin-Hardenne botched a volley, then told the chair umpire the ball was deflated. He agreed, and informed Kuznetsova the point would be replayed. Kuznetsova cried out, “Why?” and argued. When action resumed, the Russian eventually lost the game thanks to all of those poor forehands and a double-fault.

Henin-Hardenne broke again for a 4-1 lead, then handed over a break with a double-fault, one of her few shaky moments.

Otherwise, Henin-Hardenne shined when she had to:

• Serving at 4-3 and facing a break point, she produced her first backhand winner of the match, 42 minutes in.
• At set point, she dug out a tough ball, forcing Kuznetsova to hit an extra shot — a forehand into the net.
• Down 2-0, 30-love in the second set, Henin-Hardenne stayed steady, and it was Kuznetsova who made four straight unforced errors to get broken.
• Having double-faulted to deuce while down 3-2 in the second set, Henin-Hardenne ended a 23-stroke exchange — the match’s longest — by snapping a forehand that gave Kuznetsova no chance.
• At 3-3 in the second set, Henin-Hardenne ramped up the aggressiveness of her returns to break serve.

“I just fight on every ball, and that’s very important,” said Henin-Hardenne, the first woman to win consecutive French Open titles since Steffi Graf in 1995-96. “I know that all these kind of players, they don’t like when the ball is coming back all the time.”

How dominant was she the past two weeks?

She’s the first woman since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1994 to win the French Open without dropping a set. Henin-Hardenne lost 39 games over seven matches, never so much as pushed to a tiebreaker.

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Still, to the very end, she insisted she didn’t play her best.

The statistics Saturday bear that out. Henin-Hardenne made nearly twice as many unforced errors (30) as winners (16). She made only half her first serves. She won only five of the match’s 20 points that lasted 10 strokes or more.

“That’s not really important now. It doesn’t count,” Henin-Hardenne said. “What are people going to remember? That I played well from beginning to end? Or that I won the French Open?”

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