Henin exacts revenge
2007-11-09 10:55
Madrid - Justine Henin signalled her determination to finish her career-best season with her eighth title and a successful defence of the WTA Championship as she exacted a terrible revenge on Marion Bartoli.
The top-seeded world number one from Belgium won 6-0 6-0 in less then an hour against the last moment substitute from France in their first encounter since Bartoli came from a set and 0-3 down to upset Henin in the Wimbledon quarter-finals four months ago.
Bartoli only joined the tournament during Thursday's second round of matches after Serena Williams had withdrawn with a knee injury sustained late the night before. And although she appeared delighted to make her debut in the tour climax event, she got the roughest of introductions.
Henin, already twice a winner and already sure of her semi-final place, had nothing to lose and was able to open up and attack freely, while Bartoli, who had to get used to the conditions quickly, was never allowed the time to do that.
"It was a great win," said Henin. "Almost everything was perfect. I had a lot of determination because I wanted to take revenge. I am happy to finish the round robin like that.
"When you are feeling confident everything goes well. I was lucky to have had two matches before Marion had played. It was very difficult for her. She didn't know till yesterday that she would be playing. But I played solid tennis and I really enjoyed it."
'Big disappointment'
Later Henin added: "My motivation was a little bit about Wimbledon. But Wimbledon is far away now. She was better on that day, but a lot of things have happened since then.
"Now a few months later I am fresh. At Wimbledon I was tired and it was a big disappointment for me. But you have to understand how it happened and it has brought a good reaction from me since then."
It confirmed the impression that Henin, who started 2007 having separated from her husband but was then reunited with the rest of her family after an interval of seven years, has never been in more inspired form.
The only moment when Bartoli looked likely to get off the mark was when she appeared to have reached 40-15 on her serve in the fourth game, only for Henin to appeal to the Hawkeye replay system, which showed her forehand drive had in fact hit the baseline.
Bartoli now has one more chance to leave the tournament with some good memories, when she takes on world number three Jelena Jankovic on Friday.
Earlier Maria Sharapova made sure of a semi-final place with her second win in two days despite an ongoing shoulder problem which had restricted her to one match and had prevented her from scoring a win since the US Open two months ago.
Greater pressure
Sharapova did that with a 5-7 6-2 6-2 success against world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian compatriot who had apparently questioned why Sharapova should come to Moscow to support the Fed Cup winning team in September.
The Florida-based former world number one responded with a performance which could not have been much better given her lack of recent match practice. She found ways of returning the Kuznetsova serve better, sometimes standing further back to receive, and often applied the greater pressure in the baseline exchanges, especially with her forehand.
"I'm happy I didn't stay at home and quit the season," said Sharapova. "This is really good for me."
Later Anna Chakvetadze, the world number seven from Russia caused a minor surprise when she qualified for the semi-finals by beating Jelena Jankovic, the world number three from Serbia, 6-4 0-6 6-3.
Chakvetadze, who benefited from Wednesday's retirement through injury of former world number one Serena Williams, thus scored her second success and joined Henin from her group in the last four.
The semi-finalists from the other group are Ana Ivanovic and Sharapova, whose victory over Kuznetsova prevented the world number two from reaching her expected place in the later stages.