Justine Henin was born on 1 June 1982 in Liège, Belgium. When she was two, the family moved to a house next to the tennis club in Rochefort, about 70 kilometres to the south. Her mother, Françoise Rosière, a French and history teacher, died when Justine was 12. Shortly afterwards, in 1995, she met the Argentine coach Carlos Rodríguez, who guided her for the rest of her career and became a central figure in her life. As a junior she won the 1997 French Open girls' title.
She reached her first major final at Wimbledon in 2001, taking Venus Williams to three sets. In 2003 she won the French Open, beating her compatriot Kim Clijsters 6–0, 6–4 to become the first Belgian to win a major singles title, and she dedicated the victory to her late mother. She beat Clijsters again in the finals of the 2003 US Open and the 2004 Australian Open, and later in 2004 she won the Olympic gold medal in Athens, beating Amélie Mauresmo in the final.
Clay was her kingdom. She won the French Open three years in a row, from 2005 to 2007, for four titles in all, and she added a second US Open in 2007, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova. She won the season-ending WTA Championships in 2006 and 2007, finished as year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007, spent 117 weeks at No. 1 in total and was WTA Player of the Year in 2003 and 2007. Her one-handed backhand, which John McEnroe called the best in the women's or men's game, let her disguise topspin, slice and the drop shot.
She retired in 2008, came back in 2010 after 20 months away, reached the Australian Open final against Serena Williams and won titles in Stuttgart and 's-Hertogenbosch, then retired for good in 2011 with a chronic elbow injury. She finished with seven major singles titles and 43 singles titles. She is involved in the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium and presents French-language coverage of Roland Garros.