Clijsters Accuses Henin of Faking

Belgium's sporting icons, the world's second and third-ranked tennis players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne, have fallen out a month after the country's King Albert II lauded the duo as exemplary athletes who had brought the linguistically-divided nation together.

The 20-year-old Clijsters has accused her opponent, who is a year older, of regularly faking injury to distract opponents. Clijsters made her remarks after a humiliating three-set defeat at Henin's hands at the Acura Classic tournament in San Diego.

Clijsters took the first set 6-3 but lost her way after Henin took a five-minute medical break on the grounds that she needed to change a bandage on a painful foot blister. Henin subsequently won two sets to take the title.

"It's not the first time she has done this," Clijsters said. "I think she has probably had to do it in every one of our matches. It's a sign that she is not at her best and so she has to resort to other means to get out of scrapes. Looking at the way she was moving around the court afterwards she didn't look like she was in real pain. It's to her credit that she is able to turn matches around by acting in this way."

Clijsters is from the Dutch-speaking north while Henin is from the French-speaking south. The coming weeks should see Clijsters usurp injured Serena Williams as the world No1 and Henin could take the No2 slot in the next few months.

This is not the first time Henin has been accused of foul play. In June a tearful Serena Williams accused her of "lying and fabricating" after she was defeated by her in a semi-final match in the French Open.

In that instance Henin had raised a hand as if she was not ready to receive a serve prompting Williams to fault. Williams claimed two serves but was refused by the umpire who said he had seen nothing while Henin, to the American player's fury, kept quiet.

Henin was not, however, keeping quiet yesterday. "She can think what she wants. She said that because she was disappointed to have lost the match. I can understand that. But I adhere to fair-play."

Henin insists that her injury was very real and very painful. "I had to change the bandage that was protecting the blister because it was rubbing. It's very easy for her [Clijsters] to declare these kind of things but it had nothing to do with any mind games.

"I think some players don't like the fact that a player of my stature - less imposing than theirs - is strong and capable of tirelessly running around the court."