Henin-Hardenne finds form just in time to keep Belgium a - 網球

http://www.fedcup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=10844

Henin-Hardenne finds form just in time to keep Belgium alive

No-one will be too surprised that the first day score in Liege is 1-1. This
eagerly awaited tie featuring four of the world’s top 10 players was always
expected to be close, but the route by which it arrived at one rubber apiece
was hardly what most people had expected.

If the Belgians were favourites at the start of the day, they ended it
delighted to be level after so nearly going 0-2 down. After Elena Dementieva
had played one of her best clay court matches to beat Kim Clijsters 64 63,
Justine Henin-Hardenne had to come back from the brink of defeat to salvage
something from a day that looked to be heading for calamity for the best team
Belgian tennis has ever paraded.

Needing to impose herself after Clijsters’ defeat, Henin-Hardenne slipped to
a 1-4 lead early in the first set, and while she got back on level terms, her
errors contrasted with the solidity and accuracy of Nadia Petrova’s shots in
the first set tiebreak, which the Russian took 7-2. With the home player –
she’s at home not only in Belgium but here in the French-speaking region of
Wallonia – struggling to stay on level terms in the second, the crowd feared
the worst, and Petrova was looking mighty impressive.

Petrova finally fulfilling her promise

History may show this period to be the point at which the 23-year-old
Muscovite really came into her own. Long before Anastasia Myskina became the
first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam title and Maria Sharapova the first
Russian woman to be ranked No 1, Petrova was tipped by many to be the first
to both honours. She has all the shots, a powerful and tall body, and the
genetic heritage of parents who were both Olympic athletes. But she has had a
longer maturing process on the mental side, and only now, with back-to-back
titles in Amelia Island and Charleston, which have taken her to a career-high
ranking of fifth, has she begun to do justice to her promise.

But those ten consecutive victories on the North American clay took their
toll on Petrova as she closed in on victory. Henin-Hardenne played her first
really impressive game to break for 4-2, connecting with five superb returns,
all off first serves, to signal her intent. But she was broken back in the
next game, and when Petrova led 30-15 on the Belgian’s serve at 4-4, Belgium
’s chances looked to be hanging by a thread.

Henin turns it around

That’s when Henin-Hardenne got a little lucky. She profited from a bad
bounce to get back to 30-30, challenged her opponent to pass her on the next
two points, and then broke the Petrova serve to seal the set. That was the
first time Petrova had looked a bit lame, and her tiredness continued into
the final set. Henin-Hardenne squandered a 3-0 lead, but the consistency of
Petrova’s strokes was starting to tail off, and the Belgian took the match
by holding her serve to love for a 67(2) 64 63 scoreline.

Earlier, Dementieva had outplayed Clijsters in a 98-minute match, which
really made the Belgian pay for leaving her 2006 clay court debut until this
match. Dementieva, who had won just two of their previous 11 matches, was
clearly targeting the Clijsters backhand with a variety of slice, flat and
topspin hitting. But what really unnerved Clijsters was Dementieva’s
retrieving – she got so many seemingly hopeless balls back, and on one point
a rasping Clijsters forehand elicited a premature scream of “magnifique”
from the crowd, only for Dementieva to get the ball back and go on to win
the point.

Clijsters is first up on the second day against Petrova, and is likely to
play two matches if the score is 2-2 after the final singles. She and
Henin-Hardenne are expected to come in for Kirsten Flipkens and Carloline
Maes if the doubles is decisive. Russia have nominated Maria Kirilenko and
Dinara Safina, but Dementieva looks likely to replace Kirilenko if the tie
goes down to the doubles.

--
感覺很有機會要打雙打了
kim+justine vs diana+elena
wow~~~what a match!

--