Belgium vs. Russia in Eastbourne Final - 網球

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June 23, 2006

Belgium vs. Russia in Eastbourne Final

EASTBOURNE, UK - Friday's semifinals at the $600,000 Hastings Direct
International Championships featured two meetings between compatriots, with
Justine Henin-Hardene taking the all-Belgian battle and Anastasia Myskina
surviving Russian roulette.

Both finalists needed three sets to beat their fellow countrywomen Friday.
Henin-Hardenne, ranked and seeded No.3, overcame an early third-set service
break to finish strongly against Kim Clijsters, the defending Eastbourne
champion. The three-time Roland Garros champion advanced to the final here on
debut, 63 57 61, in one hour, 57 minutes.

"I was very happy with the first and third sets I played today," said
Henin-Hardenne. "In the second set, I was too far from my baseline and that
allowed Kim to dictate with her power.

"There was a very important piece of luck for me in the third set when Kim
had a break point to come back to 3-2 and my shot hit the net and barely came
over; that was very lucky."

"I think it was a very high quality match today," said Clijsters. "I think
I'm slowly getting back to the level where I want to be at.

"Justine's very tough to play on the grass; her slice stays so low. It's very
hard to do anything with your shot an her serve was very difficult to break.
It was a bit like playing Lindsay Davenport today, not with the power on her
strokes, but how few chances you get.

"I'm happy with the matches I got here this week and hopefully I can raise my
level at Wimbledon next week."

Conditions on Friday were a vast improvement on the first four days of the
event, which featured strong winds and chilly temperatures.

"I'm very happy with my preparation here this week," added Henin-Hardenne.
"After playing only one match on grass in the last three years before coming
here, I was a little nervous, but now I realise I can also play very well on
this surface."

World No.2 Clijsters, 23, who had won 10 of her 18 prior Tour matches against
Henin-Hardenne, also suffered a 63 62 loss to her Fed Cup teammate a
fortnight ago in the Roland Garros semifinals. The reigning US Open champion
appeared to have the momentum with her after taking a 12-game second set
(having trailed 2-0), breaking Henin-Hardenne's serve to open the decider.

Had Clijsters held serve in a tight second game - she held two points for a
2-0 lead - proceedings may have stayed more neck-and-neck; as it turned out,
that was only opportunity Henin-Hardenne needed. Clijsters's serve crumbled
(winning just 38% of points on her first delivery in the third set) while
Henin-Hardenne, fired three aces to reach her sixth final of 2006.

In reaching the final, Henin-Hardenne became the first woman in professional
tennis history to enter Wimbledon with $2 million in season's earnings.
Should she win on Saturday, the 24-year-old former No.1 would become only the
third reigning Roland Garros champion, and the first in 22 years, to win the
Eastbourne title. Chris Evert (1974, 1979) and Martina Navratilova (1982,
1984) are the others. The Belgian would also collect her 38th singles match
win of the year, the most of any player on Tour.

Earlier on Friday, Henin-Hardenne and Clijsters were placed in the same half
of the Wimbledon draw, meaning they could clash once again in the semifinals,
just as they did in Paris and Eastbourne. Henin-Hardenne meets China's Yuan
Meng in the first round, while Clijsters has a potentially tricky opening
match against recent Birmingham winner, Russian Vera Zvonareva.

"I'm not looking too far ahead of my draw at Wimbledon," said Henin-Hardenne.
"I only look at the first round as that is the first match and any more and
scares me."

Talking of Russians, Myskina's impressive 64 26 64 win over world No.7
Kuznetsova (her first Top 10 win of 2006; previously 0-5) puts the No.5 seed
into her second final of 2006 (runner-up at Istanbul just prior to Roland
Garros) and 18th of her career (10-7).

"I played the best match of the year by far," said Myskina, a winner in one
hour, 47 minutes. "I was hitting the ball really well, being aggressive,
moving well. I'm extremely happy with how I've been playing this week. If I
play the same against Justine tomorrow, then who knows what could happen."

Friday's Eastbourne semifinals were contested by four former Grand Slam
singles champions for the first time. Clijsters and Kuznetsova were the two
most recent winners of the title here, in 2005 and 2004 respectively, while
Henin-Hardenne and Myskina have shared the past four Roland Garros titles
(2003, 2005 and 2006 for Henin-Hardenne; 2004 for Myskina).

Three of the four women have previously won grasscourt titles, the exception
being Myskina, who was a runner-up in back-to-back weeks four years ago at
Birmingham and Eastbourne.

Henin-Hardenne and Myskina have a fascinating head-to-head series, featuring
some epic matches. While Henin-Hardenne leads 7-2, three of their past five
meetings have gone three sets, most notably in the 2004 Olympic semifinals.
In that match, Myskina led 5-1 in the decider only to fall 75 57 86, a match
that would haunt her for months.

Like Clijsters, Myskina was also one of Henin-Hardenne's victims en route to
victory in Paris, a 61 64 result in the fourth round.

Saturday's champion takes home $95,500 while the runner-up pockets $51,000.

The doubles semifinals were also contested Friday, with No.4 seeds Liezel
Huber and Martina Navratilova stunning top seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha
Stosur, 76(3) 76(3), and Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova routing
fellow unseeded pairing Marion Bartoli and Shahar Peer, 63 62. All four
finalists have held Tour doubles trophies before, but none moreso than
Navratilova, who heads into the final with 176 to her name. Huber has 14,
Kuznetsova has 12 and Mauresmo has one.

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這篇包含許多賽後訪問
juju重拾對草地的信心
Kim有再稱讚一下juju...

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