Justine Henin-Hardenne kept her cool and capped her comeback, while a nervous Mary Pierce endured the worst Grand Slam drubbing in 17 years.
Flourishing on her favorite stage, Henin-Hardenne beat Pierce 6-1, 6-1 Saturday to win the French Open, completing a remarkable recovery from a blood virus with her fourth major title and her second at Roland Garros.
"It's a lot of emotion for me," a smiling Henin-Hardenne said in French during the trophy ceremony. "I lived through very difficult moments last year. This fills me with happiness."
PHOTO: EPA
It was the most lopsided Grand Slam final since Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 to win the French Open in 1988.
Henin-Hardenne won 14 consecutive points early and swept nine games in a row in her first major event since returning from a seven-month layoff. The energy-sapping virus left her bedridden last year, but since returning in March she's 27-1 and has won 24 consecutive matches, all on clay.
The 10th-seeded Belgian also won the 2003 Roland Garros title.
"I probably enjoy my game more than before my illness," Henin-Hardenne said. "I enjoy every moment I'm on the court. Every ball I hit, it's with my heart."
The No. 21-seeded Pierce, a Frenchwoman staging a career comeback herself by reaching her first major final since winning the French Open in 2000, was unnerved by the occasion. She took several deep breaths and fought back tears before addressing the crowd during the trophy ceremony.
"Excuse me. It's very difficult to speak right now," she said in French. "I'm sad because I lost. I wanted to play a better match. I'm sorry it didn't last very long."
While Pierce looked nervous throughout the match, she insisted that she wasn't.
"And that's not good," she said. "Before today's match I was just really calm. I really wanted to be calm and not to be too nervous or emotional, because I didn't want to be tight.
"Maybe I was a little bit too calm," she said with a laugh. "I needed to be more aggressive."
The flat groundstrokes that landed on the line in her previous two wins, including a quarterfinal victory over top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, this time sailed just long or wide. Pierce also hit many ugly shots, shanking easy volleys, blowing overheads and sending mis-hit groundstrokes looping short or wildly off the court.
The center court crowd included the prince and prime minister of Belgium, but most fans cheered in support of the struggling Pierce. They occasionally groaned as her mistakes mounted, and at least once there were whistles jeering her shaky performance.
Pierce tried running in place to calm her nerves. She attempted body English to steer errant shots. Rain twice fell briefly, but not hard enough to rescue her with a delay.
Whenever Pierce appeared on the verge of finding her form, Henin-Hardenne squelched the momentum. The Belgian put away consecutive winners in the next to last game before Pierce hit her sixth double-fault to make it 5-1.
One last error by Pierce -- her 29th with a backhand into the net -- gave Henin-Hardenne the victory in 62 minutes.
"It wasn't an easy situation for her," Henin-Hardenne said. "She had to deal with a lot of pressure, being here in the final in France. I think it's very difficult.
"I did put a lot of pressure on her. For sure the crowd would prefer a closer match than that, but I'm very happy with the way I won."
Henin-Hardenne, who has yet to win Wimbledon, said she'll rest leading up to the grasscourt event and skip the warmup tournament in Eastbourne. She has been bothered by a sore back and undergoes frequent blood tests to guard against a relapse.
"My body is a little bit tired," she said. "I won't make the same mistakes as in the past. I'll take the rest when I need it."
In the men's final, Rafael Nadal will face unseeded Mariano Puerta. Nadal beat top-ranked Roger Federer in the semifinals Friday 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Puerta defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
On her way to the final, Henin-Hardenne beat US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova on consecutive days. She overcame two match points against Kuznetsova, which makes her the second woman in the Open era to save a match point en route to the Roland Garros title.
Last year's champion, Anastasia Myskina, also did it.
Henin-Hardenne's winning streak on clay is the longest by a woman since Conchita Martinez won 27 matches in a row in 1994-1995. She earned 867,000 euros (US$1,066,401), while Pierce received 433,500 euros (US$533,205).
Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus beat third-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 to win the French Open doubles championship and their first Grand Slam final. Bjorkman completed a career Grand Slam in doubles.
"It's an awesome feeling, to win all four Grand Slams," the 33-year-old Swede said.
It was the third title of the season for Bjorkman and Mirnyi, the second-seeded doubles team. They won the Key Biscayne and Hamburg titles. The win also avenged a semifinal loss to the Bryan brothers in the Australian Open semifinals. The twins lost the final at Melbourne.
"We've had some bad luck in finals," Bob Bryan said. "They're a strong team and you have to play really well to beat them. ... They're definitely getting a little better."
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