MADRID - Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo battled her back from a set down to defeat the already qualified Justine Henin-Hardenne 4-6 7-6 6-2 and book her place in the semi-finals of the WTA championships in Madrid today.
The Frenchwoman now tops the yellow group ahead of Henin-Hardenne andthe two players will progress to the last four while former world number one Martina Hingis has been elminated.
The win will help compensate Mauresmo for the disappointment of losing her number one spot which will be taken by either Henin-Hardenne or the in-form Maria Sharapova when the year-end rankings are released next week.
French Open champion Henin-Hardenne, who returned to action this week after two months on the sidelines because of a calf injury sustained in the final of the Fed Cup, will clinch the number one spot if she reaches Sunday's final.
Mauresmo beat Henin-Hardenne in the Wimbledon final and the Australian Open and once again she got the better of the Belgian.
The pair exchanged breaks early in the opening set before Henin-Hardenne gained the upper hand when she broke the Mauresmo serve with the help of a net cord to go 4-3 up.
She used some heavy top spin to keep Mauresmo pinned on the baseline and served out to love to take the set 6-4.
The second set began along similar lines as the two players traded early breaks but this time Mauresmo held firm and squared the match when she took the tie-break 7-3.
The world number one found another gear in the third as Henin-Hardenne started to flag, breaking in the third and seventh games, and made just one unforced error in the whole set as she wrapped up 6-2.
Sharapova, who is on an 18-match winning streak that includes her victory in the US Open, will advance to the semi-finals if she takes a set off fellow-Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Former world number one Kim Clijsters will meet the winless Elena Dementieva in her final round-robin match as she looks to gain a place in the last four of a tournament she won in 2002 and 2003.
