BRISBANE - Former world No 1 Justine Henin has survived a scare to win through to the Brisbane International semifinals.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner - in her first tournament in 20 months - overcame seventh-seeded Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) at Pat Rafter Arena yesterday.
She booked
a semifinal showdown with third seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who held out Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). The Belgian wildcard breezed through the first set in 31 minutes.
But the 27-year-old looked in big trouble after world No 37 Czink took the second and broke the Belgian's first service game in the third.
Henin reeled off the next four games, but when she double faulted to be broken again, the third set was suddenly back on serve.
Czink dug deep to save three match points in the 11th game to push the third set into a tiebreak.
She saved another two in the tiebreak before Henin clinched the match with an impressive cross-court forehand to keep her comeback on track.
Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, playing her first tournament since September, led by a set and 4-0 before her serve misfired and her unforced errors mounted.
Pavlyuchenkova, an 18-year-old Russian who is ranked No 40, won six of the next seven games but was broken while serving for the set, a double-fault forcing the tiebreaker.
She raced to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker and had set point at 6-5, but committed errors on the next three points to surrender the match.
Third-seeded Ivanovic was relieved to get through in straight sets.
"Yeah, I like to do that to myself," Ivanovic joked about her lapses in the second set. "I played really well from the first game and was up a couple of breaks in the second, and I relaxed a little bit. She picked it up ... I just had to stay tough and just stay in that second set."
- AAP, AP
