Clijsters–Henin rivalry

Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters are Belgian professional tennis players who engaged in a long-standing rivalry which spanned twenty-five meetings over a twelve-year period, with eight taking place in a Grand Slam tournament. Their final competitive meeting came at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships in the fourth round, with Clijsters winning in 3 sets, this brought their head to head record to 13–12 in Clijsters' favour. The Belgians have met eight times in Grand Slam tournaments, three of which were finals. Henin leads 5–3 in Grand Slam play including winning all their final match-ups.

They first met in 1998 with Henin winning in Ramat HaSharon. 2001 was a historic year for the pair. Their first match was decided in the final set at Indian Wells in the third round which Clijsters won. At the French Open the tournament witnessed Clijsters and Henin facing off in the semifinals, where the winner would create history and become Belgium's first ever singles Grand Slam finalist. Clijsters created history by winning the match in three sets before losing an epic contest to Jennifer Capriati in the final. Just two weeks later though Henin beat Clijsters in three sets to win the Heineken Open. In November the pair teamed up to bring Belgium its first success in the Fed Cup competition.

Clijsters won in straight sets in both Sydney and the Australian Open quarterfinals at the start of 2002. Henin won only her second match in six meetings against Clijsters in the semifinals of Rome. In their final match of 2002 at the WTA Championships, Clijsters lost just three games to Henin.

At the Adidas International in the first of eight matches between the pair in 2003, Clijsters saw off Henin–Hardenne in straight sets to reach the final against Lindsay Davenport, which Clijsters won. The pair's next meeting came in the semifinals of their home event, the Proximus Diamond Games, with Clijsters again winning in straight sets before falling to Venus Williams in the final. Henin–Hardenne hit back to win her first match of the year against Clijsters in Berlin. As Clijsters wasted three match points as Henin won the match in the final set 7–5. Henin then squared the series up for the year as she lost just four games to Clijsters as she won the French Open. Just two weeks later Clijsters stopped the two-game losing streak as Henin retired from the final of the Ordina Open. The pair's next meeting was at the Acura Classic with Henin fighting back from a set down to defeat her compatriot. Henin went on to claim her second Grand Slam title of the year, defeating Clijsters in straight sets at the US Open. In their final match of the year the World Number One was at stake as they faced off in Germany. It was Clijsters who was the reigning World Number One who claimed it as she defeated Henin, coming from a set down to do so.

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