Henin battles past qualifier
Henin battles past qualifier 
From Richard Eaton in Dubai, UAE
Former Australian Captain February 28, 2008
JUSTINE Henin suffered an opening-match scare for the second successive year as she sought to maintain an unbeaten record by winning her fifth title in a row at the Dubai Open.
The world No.1 from Belgium had to save two points to avoid going a break down in the final set against Katarina Srebotnik before beating the Slovenian qualifier 7-5 6-7 (6-8) 6-3.
Last
year Henin was within a point of trailing 1-4 in the final set against Tamira Paszek, an Austrian then aged only 16, but her survival kick-started a year in which she won ten titles.
Then Henin was returning to competition after a marital break-up. Now she is coming back after a knee injury and energy-sapping family reunions.
Srebotnik often hit the ball very hard and, as the chance of victory emerged, with increasing consistency too, recovering from a mini-break down in the tie-break to force a decider.
But just when she needed it, Henin hit the accelerator, coming to the net more, applying pressure from the baseline with angles and variations of spin, and ending the match with several games of colourful, high-quality attack.
What had been in danger of becoming a disaster concluded with perhaps her most encouraging performance of the year so far.
Certainly Henin thought so.
“I only recovered now from what happened to me in 2007,'’ she said.
“Mentally and emotionally I was pretty tired in Australia. Today I really enjoyed being out there, even if I wasn’t perfect.
“I was glad I had the third set to find my rhythm. It was the first set this season in which I’ve enjoyed my game. I was moving forward, going into the net, serving better, returning better.
“I’ve worked harder in the last few days than I normally would before this tournament. With my knee injury I couldn’t do a lot in the last few weeks and I arrived without having had the best preparation.
“Carlos (Rodriguez, coach) wanted me to work hard and it’s good for my confidence that I was out on the court tonight for a long time.'’
Her three-hour contest will be followed by a third round against Francesca Schiavone, the Italian No.1.
Earlier, world No.4 Jelena Jankovic spent almost the whole of a two-hour, 14-minute match trailing before narrowly surviving against Sania Mirza in the second round.
The Serbian beat the Indian 4-6 6-3 6-4 but there were many moments when it seemed that the unseeded Mirza, who led 3-1 in the final set and had three points for 5-3 and an opportunity to serve for the match, was going to win.
The 21-year-old Mumbai-based player from Hyderabad often swung her better-known opponent about the court with early, flat-hit drives, and also hit a high ratio of clean winners.
But just when it seemed she had Jankovic on the back foot, errors crept into Mirza’s game, the return of serve she sent long from a moderate second serve on the third break point being particularly wayward.
But Mirza also provided many rousing moments with her forthright style, bringing plenty of noise from the large expatriate crowd and contributing a great deal to the entertainment.
Once Jankovic spoke to some of them as though she were trying to quieten them down.
“They were making a sudden noise during the rallies, which was disturbing, and I asked them to wait until the end of the rallies to do it,'’ she said. “But they didn’t.'’
Jankovic paid tribute to the exciting ability of Mirza to attack but admitted, when questioned, that she had not been feeling her best and was disappointed with her movement.
She also said she was giving a trial to a new coach, Scott Humphries, and suggested that this was causing some confusion at the moment.
“I am struggling with him at the moment as we are in a trial period,'’ she said.
“I am trying to do the things I did before and he is doing something different, so I don’t know what I am doing.
“I’ll know in a week or two whether the arrangement will last.”
Jankovic next plays Russian Anna Chakvetadze, the No.6 seed, who survived an even longer contest, lasting more than three hours, and came back from a set and 1-4 down to beat her fellow Muscovite, Dinara Safina, by 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 6-3.
After a bathroom break before the third set, Chavetadze felt fresher and began to play better but the contest hinged just on a point or two in the final set when Chakvetadze made the crucial break of the Safina serve.
Earlier, another Russian, the No.2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, won impressively, 6-1 6-2 against Lucie Safarova, the world No.40 from the Czech Republic.
Kuznetsova revealed she had been fascinated by the magician at the players’ party the night before and wishing she had some of his skills.
With ten aces and a large number of winners, she made a pretty good job of emulating him, often making the ball unexpectedly disappear.
Her next opponent is Amelie Mauresmo, the former world No.1 from France, who beat Akiko Morigami of Japan, 4-6 6-1 6-4, and now has a chance of winning three matches in a row for the first time since Wimbledon eight months ago.
Agence France-Presse