Resilient Henin-Hardenne rules

After overcoming dehydration, Justine Henin-Hardenne won the U.S. Open title.
NEW YORK (AP) -- In the wee hours of Saturday morning, a dehydrated Justine Henin-Hardenne was sitting on a table in the trainer's room at the U.S. Open, getting intravenous fluids before heading to her hotel to sleep.
Late Saturday afternoon, she was on a practice court, trying to gauge whether she was fit enough to play in her first U.S. Open final a few hours later.
Oh, was she ever.
Taking full advantage of an error-prone opponent, a resilient Henin-Hardenne hit all the right shots and beat No. 1-ranked Kim Clijsters 7-5, 6-1 to win her second Grand Slam title of the year.
Henin-Hardenne fought off two set points in the first set of the all-Belgian final, but otherwise was in control. Of course, that was nothing compared to the 10 times she was within two points of losing to Jennifer Capriati in their thriller of a semifinal the night before.
"Justine just played a great match today," Clijsters said. "She was just too good, especially after playing that great match against Jennifer last night -- the best match I've seen all year."
Won 9 of last 10
Against Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne won nine of the last 10 games and broke serve six times, including in the last game, which ended with a clean volley winner.
It was a rematch of the French Open final, which Henin-Hardenne also won in straight sets. She now leads the tour with seven titles in 2003, one more than Clijsters, and moves up to a career-high No. 2 in the rankings, sliding past the injured Serena Williams.
Clijsters stays atop the rankings, despite falling to 0-3 in major finals -- the only woman to reach No. 1 without a Grand Slam title. She was tentative all night, with 30 unforced errors in the first set alone and a final total of 40, twice as many as Henin-Hardenne.
The past two U.S. Opens had all-Williams finals, and either Serena or older sister Venus had won each of the previous four championships. But both sisters missed this tournament.
Less than stellar
For large stretches, the level of play Saturday night was less than stellar. Indeed, with all the break points (16) and double-faults (six) and poorly played ground-strokes, it was beginning to resemble one of the early Williams-Williams major finals.
Henin-Hardenne, who's 21, had a pretty good excuse if she wasn't at her absolute best.
She left the National Tennis Center at 2:40 a.m. Saturday, two hours after finishing off the three-hour semifinal victory over Capriati. Henin-Hardenne needed intravenous fluids for dehydration that made her left leg cramp late in that match.
Normally, she would have had more time to prepare for the final, but the women's semifinals were pushed back a day to Friday night because of the rain that disrupted the tournament schedule.
Men's bracket
Racket bag slung over his shoulder, Andre Agassi briskly walked out of the locker room and through the halls of Arthur Ashe Stadium to the VIP parking lot.
He piled into a silver car and drove off at 4 p.m. on Saturday, exactly 24 hours before the start of the U.S. Open men's final. Agassi won't be back for that, and he won't be No. 1 any longer, either, after losing his semifinal and the top ranking to Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
While Agassi was making his exit, a younger American, Andy Roddick, was in the process of digging a two-set hole in the second semifinal. To the delight of the crowd and, no doubt, CBS executives, Roddick came all the way back, pounding a career-high 38 aces to beat No. 13 David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-1, 6-3.
Now, after losing in the semifinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, No. 4 Roddick will make his debut in a Grand Slam final. Ferrero, who came into this tournament ranked third, won the French Open for his first major title.