2011 Australian Open: India’s Sania Mirza scares Belgium’s Justine Henin
Currently ranked no. 145 in the world, India's Sania Mirza gave Belgium’s Justine Henin a scare in the initial match played between the two at the 2011 Australian Open on 17 January. The match took place at the Melbourne Park in
Australia.
The match started with Mirza winning the first set 7-5. After that, Henin made a swift comeback as she bagged the second set 6-3 and the following set 6-1 to advance to the following round. Sania completed qualifiers on Sunday
and admitted that she was tired during the final set. However, she was quite confident that she would return to the Top 30 after the encouraging performance.
Furthermore, Sania managed to produce some of her noted forehand winners and said that she was keen on playing her first full season since the year 2005, moving past her wrist injury. The 24-year-old added that she will be spending
the next few months working on her ranking in order to ensure that she never plays the qualifiers again after a morale boosting performance against the 11th sees Henin.
"I think this message sends out a very big message as to where I stand now as a tennis player again. I have not played someone like that for a couple of years now and I showed I could compete against her. For me, to know I can
match a player like that is something I am really happy about. It gives me a lot of confidence that I am back and I am ready to compete with the big girls.I am playing close to the level I was playing when I was top 30 in the world. I want to take this momentum
forward, I am ready to be back where I was," stated the Indian.
Mirza also said that she was excited to be back in full form, as her wrist is not sore anymore. She however, felt the workload of playing qualifiers late into the match. Henin stated that she was forced to draw deeply on her fighting
qualities to subdue Sania.
In addition, Mirza said, "My aim is not be in the (qualifiers) of the next Grand Slam, which gives me four months to play as much as possible and hopefully stay healthy. When I am healthy the results show. It is about getting more
matches in like these and I can get back to where I was and even better."
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