Roth Regatta

Justine Henin Vs. Elena Dementieva Live Streaming

Justin Henin and Elena Dementieva blitzed their first-round opponents, two sacrificial lambs who already have been lost to history. Which means just one thing:

Let’s get ready to ruuuuuuuummmble!

That’s right, in just the second round, two serious contenders for the Australian Open crown are set to meet. The survivor — and make no mistake, this will be a sword-clanging, dirt-tossed-in-the-eyes battle — is going to come out bloodied b

ut exhilarated. Expect her to charge confidently into the semifinals at the very least, despite being in a very difficult quarter.

So which one will it be? Both women looked pretty good during their warm-up laps. Henin, in her first tournament in 18 months, slugged her way to the Brisbane final, where she came very close to beating Kim Clijsters. Dementieva, meanwhile, slapped aside Serena Williams to win in Sydney.

Even though she’s still getting used to being in a locker room again, the

unseeded Henin has to be considered the favorite, for one simple reason: She has a lot more experience winning big matches. She knows there’s a shockingly empty feeling that comes with holding up a Grand Slam trophy — all these years of hitting tennis balls and this is it? — and so she’s not out on court looking for validation or love. She’s doing it simply to feel that sweet pressure in the lungs when you hit a ball just right, that incorruptible feeling of youth and beauty and lightnes

s. Oh, yeah, and to win Wimbledon. Which is six months away. The seven-time Grand Slam champion is still in preparation mode, feeling her oats — and that makes her very dangerous.

The 28-year-old Dementieva, on the other hand, hasn’t yet won a major, having come up short in two finals (way back in ’04) and innumerable semis. The Beijing Olympics was a glorious win for her — and a very big thing back home in Russia. But it’s still not one of the Big Four. In the tennis world, the world in which she lives, it’s about comparable to winning Rome — a nice piece of work, but not exactly Geronimo’s scalp.

And yet … I’m picking Dementieva. Part of this is simply a journalist’s personal preference (even though we’re not supposed to have them). I interviewed Henin a few years ago, and she was polite and politic and … well, impenetrable. Of course, Justine’s no more unknowable to outsiders than, say, Rafa or Roger, but at least Rafa and Roger give off unmistakable hints of being human. Same goes for Dementieva. She’s lived happily in the shadow of the more glamorous blond Russian, Maria Sharapova, her entire mature career (she reached her two major finals the same year Maria won Wimbledon). She treats fans with respect, shyly signing autographs for anyone who asks. And, most endearingly, she made everyone feel her pain back in the days when she hit a serve like a walrus slapping high-fives. Having the fifth-seeded Dementieva’s name etched onto the winner’s cup two Sundays from now would make this the feel-good Slam of the year.

I’m also picking her because she’s playing better tennis than Henin right now. And that, in the end, should be the determining factor. It almost always is when the top men play. It’s time for that to be the case for the ladies, too.