New York ? In the wee hours of Saturday morning, a dehydrated Justine Henin-Hardenne was sitting on a table in the trainer’s room at the U.S. Open, getting intravenous fluids before heading to her hotel to sleep.

Late Saturday afternoon, she was on a practice court, trying to gauge whether she was fit enough to play in her first U.S. Open final a few hours later.

Taking full advantage of an error-prone opponent, a resilient Henin-Hardenne hit all the right shots and beat No. 1-ranked Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-1, to win her second Grand Slam title of the year.

“I’ve always been a great fighter,” Henin-Hardenne said. “I always thought the first win in a Grand Slam would be the most important one, but this is amazing.”

She fought off two set points in the first set of the all-Belgian final, but otherwise was in control. Of course, that was nothing compared to the 10 times she was within two points of losing to Jennifer Capriati in their thriller of a semifinal the night before. Henin-Hardenne trailed 5-3 in the second set and 5-2 in the third, and Capriati twice served for the match.

“Justine just played a great match today,” Clijsters said. “She was just too good, especially after playing that great match against Jennifer last night — the best match I’ve seen all year.”

Against Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne won nine of the last 10 games and broke serve six times, including in the last game, which ended with a clean volley winner.

It was a rematch of the French Open final, which Henin-Hardenne also won in straight sets. She now leads the tour with seven titles in 2003, one more than Clijsters, and moves up to a career-high No. 2 in the rankings, sliding past the injured Serena Williams.

Still, Henin-Hardenne isn’t exactly a household name in the United States: A representative of the main tournament sponsor called her “Christine” while presenting the champion’s trophy and check during the on-court postmatch ceremony.

Clijsters stays atop the rankings, despite falling to 0-3 in major finals — the only woman to reach No. 1 without a Grand Slam title. She was tentative all night, with 30 unforced errors in the first set alone and a final total of 40, twice as many as Henin-Hardenne.

The past two U.S. Opens had all-Williams finals, and either Serena or older sister Venus had won each of the previous four titles.