Justine Joins Kim in QFs
Published January 06, 2010 12:00
BRISBANE, Australia - The last four quarterfinal berths were snapped up at the Brisbane International on Wednesday, as the second round came to a close.
Listen to commentary on all singles matches on Pat Rafter Arena this week (and maybe even some doubles) on AO Series Radio!
The first three matches of the day took place in the afternoon, with Daniela Hantuchova, Lucie Safarova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova moving through. Hantuchova, the No.4 seed, beat Agnes Szavay, 63 61, and Safarova upset No.6 seed Aleksandra Wozniak by the same score; Pavlyuchenkova trailed 61 43 to Roberta Vinci but surged back to beat the Italian, 16 64 61.
In the much-anticipated night match, Justine Henin - a wildcard in the draw - beat qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, 64 63. Henin, who beat No.2 seed Nadia Petrova on Monday in the first match of her Sony Ericsson WTA Tour comeback, was slow to start in each of the sets against Karatantcheva, falling behind 2-0 in each one; but she regrouped both times to win routinely.
"It took me a few games to get into the match. It's a night session today, a different situation," Henin said. "It's about rhythm. In my first match, Petrova pushed me very hard. Sesil stays far from her baseline and lets me play. I wasn't aggressive enough. But it was a two set match and I'm still happy."
Check out photos from Brisbane in the Brisbane Gallery!
Top seed Kim Clijsters, No.3 seed Ana Ivanovic, No.7 seed Melinda Czink and Andrea Petkovic won second round matches on Tuesday.
All four quarterfinals will take the court on Thursday, with Clijsters facing Safarova, Ivanovic facing Pavlyuchenkova, Hantuchova facing Petkovic and Czink facing Henin in a battle of 27-year-olds.
