PARIS (AFP) -- Justine Henin refused to talk about her marital split but said here Monday that she was just glad to be getting back on the tennis court.

Henin has not played since the WTA Championships in Madrid in November, where she downed Maria Sharapova in the final to take over the world number one slot. She missed last month's Australian Open due to personal reasons, later revealed to be the split from husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne.

She will make her competitive comeback later in the week as she has a first round bye, and Henin was adamant the only thing she wanted to talk about was her tennis.

"This has been a hard time, a painful time but all I want to talk about is my tennis," said the 24-year-old Belgian, currently number two in the world behind Australian Open finalist Sharapova.

"We all go through hard times and this will stay our secret, that's our right and I ask you to accept it. "I'm very happy to be back here (in Paris) and competing again. There are things that I'll keep to myself."

Henin followed the Australian Open from afar and returned to training during the first Grand Slam of the season, where she had reached the final in 2006.

She was initially planning a return to action at Dubai in two weeks time but said she felt that would have kept her out of the game for too long. "I started training again during the Australian Open. I wanted to see how it was going. It was too long to wait for Dubai so when I had the chance of coming to Paris, I thought I have to get back into it."

Henin enjoyed her best season ever in 2006, reaching 10 finals from 13 tournaments -- winning six -- and reaching all four Grand Slam finals -- winning in Roland Garos for the third time before also claiming the end of season Championships.

And she is keen to continue in that rich vein, even though her season has started badly, losing top spot in the world, missing the first month of competition and drained by personal and emotional issues.

But she still has a lot of ambition left and is determined to pick up one title that has always eluded her. "I'm soon going to turn 25 (in June) and Wimbledon is something that I think more about every year."

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam title Henin is yet to win, having lost to Venus Williams in the 2001 final and coming unstuck against Amelie Mauresmo last year.

And while she is widely regarded as the best clay courter in the women's game, she knows she has things to work on if she is to compete on grass with big servers such as Sharapova and Serena Williams.

"I did much better at Wimbledon last year than before. I have developed a much more attacking tennis but I still need to improve my serve and my forehand," she said.

Henin did not fail to notice the impact Serena Williams made in Australia and despite the obvious threat an on-fire Serena poses to the Belgian's Wimbledon ambitions, she is delighted to see her rival back.

"Serena is a great champion. Before the Australian Open she proved she had the desire to return. She wanted this win a lot. "It's a great thing for women's tennis to have her back at the top of her game."

Henin is the top seed here in Paris where world number three and second seed Mauresmo is the defending champion.

Eight of the top 13 players in the world are in the field including a particularly strong Russian contingent, comprising five of those eight players.

In two previous outings here, in 2000 and 2002, Henin has never progressed beyond the quarterfinals.