Justine Henin

When Justine Henin was ten, her mother took her to Roland Garros to watch the 1992 French Open women's final. Justine told her that one day she would win there. Three years later her mother died of cancer. In 2003 Henin won the French Open, the first of four titles in Paris, and she dedicated her career to that promise.

She was born on June 1, 1982, in Liège, Belgium, at 4:20 in the afternoon, a time confirmed from municipal records. Her Sun is in Gemini, with Mercury, retrograde, also in Gemini, both in the eighth house, which concerns loss, death and deep transformation. The eighth house describes experiences that change a person permanently, and her mother's death shaped her life and drive.

Libra is her rising sign, and the first house is crowded with Saturn, retrograde in Libra, Pluto in Libra and Jupiter, retrograde, just inside Scorpio. Libra gives grace and elegance, and Henin's one-handed backhand was considered one of the most beautiful shots in tennis. But Saturn and Pluto in the first house add steely intensity, control and an almost frightening will to win. At about five feet five inches tall, she was much smaller than most of her rivals and overcame them through fitness, precision and mental toughness.

Her Moon is in Libra in the twelfth house, along with Mars in Libra. The twelfth house is associated with hidden emotions and private struggles, and Henin was famously reserved and guarded. After her mother's death, she became estranged for years from her father and siblings, a painful rupture she kept largely private before reconciling with them later.

Venus in Taurus lies in her seventh house of marriage and rivals. Henin's rivalry with her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters defined women's tennis in the early 2000s, and the contrast between the two, the cool, intense Henin and the warm, easygoing Clijsters, fascinated fans.

Henin won seven Grand Slam singles titles: four French Opens, two US Opens and one Australian Open. She won the Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004 and spent more than a hundred weeks as the world's top-ranked player.

In May 2008, while ranked No. 1 in the world, she shocked the sport by retiring immediately, saying she had nothing left to give. She returned in 2010, reaching the Australian Open final, but an elbow injury forced her to retire for good in 2011. She later opened a tennis academy in Belgium and became a respected television commentator.

Uranus and Neptune in Sagittarius lie in her second and third houses, suggesting unconventional choices about resources and communication. The Gemini planets in the eighth house carried her mother's loss; the Saturn and Pluto in her first house turned it into a will that very few opponents could break.