On a windy day in 's-Hertogenbosch, 7th seed Andrea Petkovic was up 6-3, 3-6, 3-0 against wild card and top seed Justine Henin in the Unicef Open. Petkovic has some problems closing big matches, and of course, those problems are going to be magnified when Henin is on the other side of the net. The Belgian walked away with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory, and she and Petkovic took home two of the more unusual trophies given on the tour.
Yet well done, Justine. This was a grass court tournament win she needed for her confidence and she could be very dangerous now given her draw. Taking a look at her best-known challengers prior to the semis: Clijsters is coming off the injury and could even have problems with Sprem in the 2nd round. Schnyder, Petrova and Jankovic are a combined (get ready for this) 3-31 lifetime against Henin -- I kid you not. Finally, Henin is excellent on the grass. Only two active players not named Williams have been Wimbledon finalists; Justine has done it twice. So I would not discount her chances, Diane, though much will depend on the reliability of her serve. Not sure how that went this week.
ReplyDelete3-31! Wow. I agree--if Justine's serve holds up, she's very much in the mix.
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