In a Brisbane International quarterfinal match that lasted two hours and twenty minutes, wild card Justine Henin emerged the winner against Melinda Czink, who saved five match points. Henin defeated Czink 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, holding on to an early mini-break in the tiebreak.
Kim Clijsters also won her quarterfinal match, defeating Lucie Safarova 6-1, 0-6, 6-4. Ana Ivanovic defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 7-6, and Andrea Petkovic upset 4th seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-2.
In the semifinals, Henin will play Ivanovic, and Clijsters will play Petkovic.
It seems interesting that on the same day Clijsters and Henin both needed three sets to win. Clijsters match seemed like the V. Williams match at the US Open where there was a real flip-flop in the first two sets. Ana was the one who got through more easily in the quarters than in her other matches. It will be interesting to see how the Ivanovic-Henin match plays out given their H2H but the fact that it is Henin's first tournament.
ReplyDeleteBoth Czink and Safarova are lefties, and both have really good games. Their problem is that they are inconsistent. But on a good day, it doesn't surprise me that either of them would present problems to Henin and Clijsters.
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