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| February 09, 2007 | Friday | Muharram 20, 1428 |
Henin back in style at Paris Open
PARIS, Feb 8: Top seed Justine Henin shook off the ring rust to earn a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Frenchwoman Emilie Loit at the 600,000-dollar Paris Indoor Open here on Wednesday.
Henin was playing for the first time since mid-November and since splitting from her husband last month.
Henin, the former world number one, took a while to find her rhythm and her first set was strewn with errors. She netted a forehand to serve up a break for Loit in the eighth game and then could only watch helplessly as her opponent clinched the first set in the next game with a rasping forehand down the line.
But the flow changed from the second set onwards and the world number two from Belgium quickly imposed her superiority, claiming the second set with a delightful drop volley and then cantering away with the third for a place in the quarter-finals.
Seventh seed Dinara Safina survived a marathon battle against Camille Pin to also take her place in the last eight. Safina recovered from dropping the opening set to win this second round clash 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) in just under two and a quarter hours of gripping contest. An upset looked on the cards as the world number 75 Frenchwoman stormed the first set against her number 12-ranked opponent.
But while the notoriously brittle Safina, sister of former men's world number one Marat Safin, was at her erratic worst in the first set, she bounced back thereafter.
Come the third, Pin’s greater consistency and fewer unforced errors seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Three times she broke to move in front but on each occasion Safina blasted her off the court in her next service game.
Safina raced into a 6-3 lead in the final set tie-break but Pin saved the first two match points and seemed all set to save the third as well when a cruel twist of luck denied her.
Having run Safina out of court, she advanced to put away a winning forehand, only to see the ball clip the top of the net and skew off into the tram-lines.
Third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia also survived a marathon and a poor start as she overcame Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to reach the quarters.
Moscow-born Tatiana Golovin won the battle of the French teenagers with a 6-2, 6-2 first round victory over Alize Cornet.
Eighth seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze thrashed compatriot Olga Poutchkova 6-2, 6-0.
She next faces Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues who beat France’s Severine Bremond 6-2, 7-5 despite trailing 5-1 in the second set.
Results (x denotes seeding):
Second round: Nadia Petrova (RUS x4) bt Martina Muller (GER) 6-1, 6-2; Dinara Safina (RUS x7) bt Camille Pin (FRA) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5); Justine Henin (BEL x1) bt Emilie Loit (FRA) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2; Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x3) bt Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
First round: Anna Chakvetadze (RUS x8) bt Olga Poutchkova (RUS) 6-2, 6-0; Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) bt Severine Bremond (FRA) 6-2, 7-5; Tatiana Golovin (FRA) bt Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-2, 6-2.–AFP
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