TENNIS/French Open Women's final:The details are barely relevant. Ana Ivanovic began to feel nervous after a game and a half into her first French Open final against Justin Henin. The toss on her serve was first to go. Her most dangerous stroke, her forehand, then collapsed. After that it was a rout.

It has been some years now since the French Open has had anything but a breathlessly one-sided women's final, and people should be concerned.

Last year Henin (left) beat Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova ever so simply 6-4, 6-4. The crowd yawned. The year before the Belgian again filleted her opponent, this time the stage-struck diva Mary Pierce, 6-1, 6-1. They sighed.

The 2004 season wasn't much better when Russia's Anastasia Myskina worked over her compatriot Elena Dementieva, whose rickety serve finally gave up under the pressure. Again the score told a sorry story, 6-1, 6-1.

For Henin's first title she met her compatriot the now retired Kim Clijsters, who resisted in the first set but dropped it 7-5, before a second chapter of hitting the ball everywhere but between the lines, capitulating 6-3 in the second.

"In the beginning of the match I felt okay," said Ivanovic after her 65-minute, 6-1, 6-2 defeat. "I was trying to put the nerves, the emotions aside. Then in the first service game it all of a sudden just hit me. I had so much trouble with my ball toss. It was going everywhere."

Although the phenomenon is not unusual, it was an unsettling experience watching a switch suddenly flick and a player who had aggressively broken Henin's serve in the first game begin to mentally implode. And if the 19-year-old Ivanovic thought she might get some sympathy from a crowd that was always going to be behind the francophone Henin, she was sadly mistaken.

Each botched serve and double fault, each singing forehand that ended some feet outside the baseline and sideline, was met with a collective groan as Henin was asked to do little other than keep the ball in play. And all from a promising start.

After breaking serve in the first game, Ivanovic sped to 40-love in the second. The murmuration of fans turned to chattering. At 40-15 in the second game of the match with Ivanovic a game up and serving wonderfully, she suddenly realised where she was.

She was in court Philippe Chatrier, on the terre battue, where she had always hoped to play. She was in the French Championship final, a competition that as a child she had dreamed of winning.

Right there, at 40-15 up, a rush of reality annihilated her composure and paved the way for a crushing defeat.

"Just on 40-15, in that game, I all of a sudden started feeling nervous and I couldn't really control my ball toss," said Ivanovic.

Henin's win puts her alongside Monica Seles as one of only two women in the Open era (1968) to win three consecutive Roland Garros titles. The champion, who turned 25 earlier this month, is also only the fifth woman since 1925 to win four or more crowns after Chris Evert (seven), Steffi Graf (six), Margaret Court (five) and Helen Wills Moody (four).

"The match has been pretty easy," said Henin, who missed the Australian open following the collapse of her marriage. "She had control for two games and then she was pretty nervous and I did my job perfectly. I did what I had to do."

After Ivanovic broke Henin in the first game, she lost the following six in succession for the set.

Henin hit only six winners to nine from Ivanovic but the Serb also hit 13 unforced errors and won only 27 per cent of her first serves.

The second set was a little better from Ivanovic but inevitability had crept in as Henin broke serve in the first and fifth games to lead 5-2. She then served for the match.

Ivanovic hit a forehand long for 15-0 and a backhand wide for 30-0. Henin aced her for 40-0 and volleyed away the final point for the match. Fin.