Justine Henin and Rafael Nadal both won their respective tour titles on the weekend - she in Stuttgart, he in Rome. Both players are in the midst of - she from a lengthy retirement, he from a nagging knee injury. Both players have one more tournament to play before Roland Garros begins - the combined event in Madrid. Both players are 4 time champions at Roland Garros - though neither is defending.
And both player's ranking is on the rise.
In just 5 tournaments this year Justine has managed to win one and finish as the finalist in another two, including the Australian Open. Her reward for her efforts is to find herself ranked #19 this morning. This is also great news for Elena Dementieva.
Rafael Nadal retired from his quarterfinal match against Andy Murray at the Australian Open and sat out a number of weeks to nurse a nagging knee injury. Upon his return he has been the man to rack up the most points on the tour in 2010. True, he is still at #3 this week but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that he'll be adding nothing but points at Wimbledon and Queens Club. And if he plays his cards right he could spoil Roger's 'Most Weeks at #1' party.
Justine and Rafa don't have time to improve much on their rankings for optimal seeding at Roland Garros - since she is sitting out Rome this week it'll be tough for her to get inside the top 16 and Novak Djokovic would have to really fold in Belgrade and Madrid for Rafa to replace him at #2.
But the folks at Roland Garros should do the right thing here... MOVE THEM UP REGARDLESS. The Slams have the authority to move players around and Rafa should be seeded #2 and Justine should be moved up to #8 - but I'd settle for #16.
Photo: Justine at the Stuttgart player's party.
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