The Hindu : Sport : Justine Henin-Hardenne hits cruise mode

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Thursday, Apr 28, 2005

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Sport

Justine Henin-Hardenne hits cruise mode

WARSAW: Belgium's Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne won in contrasting styles on Tuesday in the opening round of the J&S Cup.

Seventh-seeded Clijsters, bidding for her 15th-straight victory after tournament wins at Indian Wells and Miami, struggled to overcome Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1, while Henin-Hardenne swept aside Czech Republic qualifier Denisa Chladkova 6-2, 6-2.

On her least-favoured surface of clay, Clijsters squandered numerous chances — missing two break points that would have given her a 4-0 first-set lead. She then did the same in the second with a 4-1 advantage possible.

Perebiynis, who received treatment for a thigh strain when trailing 4-1 in the third, failed to hold serve in the deciding set.

``I wasn't consistent enough,'' Clijsters said. ``At times I was serving well and putting a lot of pressure on her, but at other times I was rushing into things. But I didn't expect to play good tennis straight away. I've never done that on clay. My first match on clay is always tough and I definitely didn't feel comfortable .''

``It (Charleston) gave me a lot of confidence for sure, but here the court is so different,'' said Henin-Hardenne. ``It's almost like another surface. It was very dry and very slippery over there. Here, it's heavy."

Moya downs Mantilla

At Oeiras, top-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain beat countryman Felix Mantilla 6-0, 7-6 (5) on Tuesday in the opening round of the clay-court Estoril Open.

Mantilla put up more of a fight in the second set with both players breaking the other's serve once. But Mantilla produced his sixth double fault to lose the tiebreak and the match.

``I could have made it a bit easier,'' Moya admitted. ``I had the wind against me and it felt like I wanted to get it over too quickly.'' Feliciano Lopez also advanced, beating Alex Corretja 6-7(1), 7-6(4), 6-4.

The results: At Warsaw (J&S Cup): First round: Daniela Hantuchova bt Karolina Kosinska 6-4, 7-5; Kim Clijsters bt Tatiana Perebiynis, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1; Silvia Farina Elia bt Michaela Pastikova 6-2, 6-0; Maria Vento-Kabchi bt Francesca Schiavone 5-1 (retd); Maria Kirilenko bt Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2; Ana Ivanovic bt Martina Sucha 6-0, 6-0; Justine Henin-Hardenne bt Denisa Chladkova 6-2, 6-2; Nathalie Dechy bt Magdalena Maleeva 6-4, 6-4; Julia Vakulenko bt Anna Chakvetadze 7-6 (5), 6-1; Zuzana Ondraskova bt Vera Douchevina 6-3, 6-4; Anna Smashnova bt Klara Koukalova 7-5, 7-5; Marta Domachowska bt Virginie Razzano 7-6 (4), 7-5.

At Oeiras, Portugal (Estoril Open): Men: First round: Carlos Moya bt Felix Mantilla 6-0, 7-6 (5); Joachim Johansson bt Alex Calatrava 7-6 (1), 6-4; Davide Sanguinetti bt Frank Condor 6-0, 6-2; Juan Antonio Marin bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1, 6-2; Albert Montanes bt Galo Blanco 7-6 (5), 6-4; Agustin Calleri bt Rui Machado 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; Paul-Henri Mathieu bt Jiri Novak 7-6 (5), 6-1; Tomas Cakl bt Kenneth Carlsen 6-3, 6-0; Juan Carlos Ferrero bt Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (6); Feliciano Lopez bt Alex Corretja 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-4; Tommy Robredo bt Frantisek Cermak 6-2, 2-6, 6-4; Nicolas Massu leads Albert Costa 6-3, 2-3 (susp., darkness).

Women: First round: Olga Savchuk bt Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 7-6 (8); Na Li bt Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; Michaella Krajicek bt Severine Beltrame 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Mariana Diaz-Oliva bt Melanie Gloria 6-1, 6-1; Lucie Safarova bt Virginia Ruano Pascual 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-0; Jie Zheng bt Henrieta Nagyova 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Katerina Bondarenko bt Melinda Czink 7-5, 6-3; Jill Craybas bt Magda Mihalache 6-3, 6-1; Gisela Dulko bt Stephanie Foretz 7-6 (2), 6-2; Martina Muller bt Marta Marrero 6-4, 6-4; Maria Sanchez Lorenzo bt Lilia Osterloh 0-6, 7-5, 6-1; Ludmila Cervanova bt Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4, 6-0.

At Munich (BMW Open): First Round: Tommy Haas bt Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-3; Raemon Sluiter bt Tomas Zib 6-4, 6-2; Juan Monaco bt Lars Burgsmueller 7-5, 6-3; Ricardo Mello bt Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-2; Sjeng Schalken bt Tobias Summerer 6-2, 7-5; Nikolay Davydenko bt Jerome Haehnel 7-6 (2), 6-2; Andrei Pavel bt Alexander Waske 6-4, 6-4. — AP

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