Henin defeats Petrova to book Clijsters match at Wimbledon
Justine Henin is through to the fourth round at Wimbledon where she’ll face fellow Belgian comeback queen Kim Clijsters.
Playing the first match of day five on centre court, Henin romped to the first set against Nadia Petrova before being forced to work just that bit harder to take the second set and a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
With Henin stating post-match she’d played at “maybe the best level I’ve played since I’m back”, there’s plenty to look forward to when she plays Clijsters in her next match.
Certainly, Henin maintained her concentration to close out the match today, something that has not seemed to come easily to the 17th seed in part two of her career. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two opponents today, however, is best illustrated in the unforced error count, with Henin making just five enforced errors to Petrova’s 18 for the match.
It was also another fine display of Henin’s accomplished all-court game, as she won 86% of points when she came to the net, something the 28-year-old did 14 times during the match. Petrova, by contrast only prevailed on 38% of the 13 occasions she approached the net over the two sets.
Henin made a flying start to the match, breaking Petrova in the opening game then racing through the opening set in just 17 minutes, before the Russian fought her way back into the match in the second set.
After a shaky start, perhaps taking time to settle into playing on centre court at the All England Club, Petrova started to find her feet and with her serve beginning to fire Henin found herself facing a very different opponent in the second set.
It was Petrova who secured the opening break of the second set, and with it a 2-1 advantage, before Henin broke back to level again at 3-3, breaking serve again in the tenth game of the match to wrap up the victory in just one hour and eight minutes.
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