Belgium's Justine Henin poses with her trophy after defeating Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the women's final at the French Open yesterday. - Reuters

PARIS (Reuters):

JUSTINE HENIN carved her name alongside the great figures of claycourt tennis yesterday with her 6-1, 6-2 win over 19-year-old Serbian Ana Ivanovic.

The Belgian became the first woman since tennis turned professional in 1968 to win back-to-back Roland Garros crowns without dropping a set.

Henin scrutinised handwritten notes during the changeovers which reminded her "you are the best" and instructed her to "get to the net".

Fittingly, the world number one swiped away a high volley on match point to seal a hat-trick of victories in Paris. She became only the second woman, after Monica Seles, to achieve the feat since World War II.

Arms aloft in triumph

As her racquet went flying out of her hands, the Belgian leaned on the net and held her head in disbelief. After taking a moment to absorb the enormity of her achievement, she tilted her head skywards and held her arms aloft in triumph.

"The adventure continues ... third time in a row at Roland Garros and it feels incredible," the beaming six-time grand slam champion said, tightly clutching the trophy.

"I've had tough times at the start of the year but this has made it all worthwhile. I've found my family again and I dedicate this to my family," she added referring to her reconciliation with her father and siblings after years of estrangement.

The Belgian has sought solace on various tennis courts around the world since her marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne broke down at the turn of the year and nowhere does she feel more at home than on final's day on Philippe Chatrier Court.

The last time she dropped a set here was in the fourth round in 2005.

Masterly campaign

It took Henin, also a champion in 2003, only 65 minutes to finish another masterly campaign in the French capital and take her record streak of consecutive sets to 35.

After trampling over world number three Svetlana Kuznetsova and second-ranked Maria Sharapova to reach her first major final, seventh seed Ivanovic had harboured hopes of sabotaging Henin's path to greatness.

Instead, she suffered the same fate as the Belgian's last 20 opponents at the claycourt grand slam.

"It's been a very exciting two weeks for me," said Ivanovic, who had been hoping to become the first player representing Serbia to capture a grand slam.

"I'm really happy to be here but I would have been even more happy if I could have held the trophy."

Yet to sit her final exams in school, Ivanovic appeared to have done her homework well when she fired down crunching forehand winners in the opening game to stun Henin, who dropped her serve with a tame double fault.

If the champion was rattled, she did not show it.

As Ivanovic's serve malfunctioned time and again, Henin ran away with eight games before the Serbian broke the spell to hold serve for the first time in the match at 6-1, 2-1 down.

The reprieve only delayed the inevitable and by the end it was hard not to feel sorry for the Serb, who honed her skills playing in an empty swimming pool as bombs fell on Belgrade.

Henin joins claycourt greats Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Margaret Court and Helen Wills Moody in having won four or more titles here since 1925, the year the championships were opened to non-French players.

It also boosted her bank balance by a cool €1,000,000 (US$1.34 million).