The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Henin rallies past Martinez

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 10, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Henin rallies past Martinez

AMELIA ISLAND (FLORIDA), APRIL 9. World No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the quarterfinals of the Bausch & Lomb Championships by rallying to deny Conchita Martinez her 700th career victory on Thursday. Henin-Hardenne won 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 despite losing her serve three times in each of the first two sets.

Martinez, champion in 1995, appeared set to become only the seventh woman in the Open era to win 700 matches when the Spaniard took her first ever set off Henin-Hardenne in six meetings.

But Henin-Hardenne broke Martinez to love in the 11th game to win the second set, and held on after breaking in the fourth game of the third.

Second-seeded Serena Williams came back from 3-0 down in the second set to beat Karolina Sprem of Croatia 6-1, 7-5, and set up a quarterfinal against No. 7 Nadia Petrova of Russia. Petrova handled Petra Mandula of Hungary 6-1, 6-4.

No. 8 Vera Zvonareva of Russia hammered No. 12 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3 in only 50 minutes. Schnyder, twice a quarterfinalist, made 21 unforced errors and won only a third of her first serves. Zvonareva plays Henin-Hardenne next.

Former champion Amelie Mauresmo of France dispatched Czech qualifier Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4 to reach her third quarterfinals in four tournaments this year.

Mauresmo, who won this tournament in 2001, won the last three games of the first set against Strycova, the 2002 world junior girls champion, and broke once more in the eighth game of the second.

Mauresmo, seeded and ranked No. 3, is appearing in her first tournament in nine weeks following a back injury, and on Friday will meet 10th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy.

Farina Elia won 6-2, 6-2 against Jelena Kostanic, the Croatian who knocked out defending champion Elena Dementieva in the second round.

Ninth-seeded Paola Suarez of Argentina broke No. 6 Ai Sugiyama of Japan to force a tiebreaker, and went on to win 7-5, 7-6 (10-8).

Grande has it easy

At Casablanca, defending champion Rita Grande of Italy beat Moroccan wildcard Bahia Mouhtassine 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the US$110,000 Grand Prix SAR.

Grande will face seventh-seeded Lubomira Kurhajcova of Slovakia, who defeated Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-4, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Ludmila Cervanova of Slovakia downed Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3, and will next meet Polish qualifier Marta Domachowska, who advanced when Gala Leon Garcia of Spain retired with a hip injury after losing the first set 6-1.

The results:

At Amelia Island (Bausch and Lomb women's championships): Third round: Amelie Mauresmo bt Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4; Silvia Farina Elia bt Jelena Kostanic 6-2, 6-2; Nadia Petrova bt Petra Mandula 6-1, 6-4; Vera Zvonareva bt Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-3; Justine Henin-Hardenne bt Conchita Martinez 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Paola Suarez bt Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 7-6 (10-8); Serena Williams bt Karolina Sprem 6-1, 7-5.

At Casablanca (Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem women's tournament): Second round: Lubomira Kurhajcova bt Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-3; Ludmila Cervanova bt Eva Birnerova 6-3, 6-3; Rita Grande bt Bahia Mouhtassine 6-3, 6-3; Marta Domachowska bt Gala Leon Garcia 6-1 (retd). — AP

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