Henin, Sharapova Advance to SF Meeting at Australian Open

The oft-injured Henin-Hardenne looked on course last year to make a run at No. 1 before being sidelined by leg and health issues, not playing her first match of the year until April at Miami. In only nine events played in 2005, Henin-Hardenne won four in a row including the French Open, and finished runner-up to Kim Clijsters in Toronto for five finals in nine total tournaments.

On Tuesday the Belgian found herself a set down after twice double faulting on break points in the opener. In the second set Henin-Hardenne's consistency improved while Davenport's taped ankle, the result of an injury in her previous match, began to limit her mobility.

"I think I played pretty solid in the second and the third sets," Henin-Hardenne said. "She put me under a lot of pressure in the first, but I kept fighting...From where I'm coming from, I've been injured for such a long time, it's great to be back in the semifinals."

In the semis the No. 8-seeded Henin-Hardenne will face the No. 4-seeded Maria Sharapova, who won an all-Russian encounter with No. 6 seed Nadia Petrova 7-6(6), 6-4.

Petrova put herself in a winning position in the first set before performing the super-throat-clutcher: failing to serve it out at 5-4, then double faulting on game point when serving at 6-5, then in the tiebreak leading 6-4 before committing three straight unforced errors, then double faulting to end the match.

After the encounter Sharapova admitted she tanked in their last meeting, a round robin match at the 2005 year-ending WTA Championships which Petrova won.

"That wasn't really a match for me," Sharapova said. "I was already in the semis so I just wanted to save my energy."

Sharapova made 36 unforced errors to 15 winners Tuesday, but the at-times-tearful and racquet-slamming Petrova won the ugly contest with 49 unforced errors and 12 double faults.

"I just feel like I simply gave it away," Petrova said. "I had all the chances in the first set...I mean, there's nothing I can do about it now. I can just go through my mistakes and get my head cleared from all this and just move forward."

Sharapova, who struggled with the wind, knows she will have to adapt better to the conditions in the semis.

"I will have to step it up for sure but I am confident I can do that," Sharapova said. "My biggest weapon is my toughness and I know that until the end of the match I will keep being a tough opponent, even if I am making a lot of mistakes."

Winners in doubles quarterfinal play Tuesday were (1) Lisa Raymond/Sam Stosur (d. (10) Dulko/Kirilenko), (9) Shinobu Asagoe/Katarina Srebotnik (d. (2) Black/Stubbs 6-0 in the third), (5) Anna-Lena Groenefeld/Meghann Shaughnessy (d. Russians (3) Likhovtseva/Zvonareva), and China's (12) Zi Yan/Jie Zheng (d. (4) Ruano Pascual/Suarez in three).

Scheduled for Wednesday are (3) Mauresmo vs. (7) Schnyder (Mauresmo leads head-to-head encounters 10-5, including the last three) and (2) Clijsters vs. Hingis (Swiss leads 4-1, including their most recent three-set encounter in 2002) in singles quarterfinal play, and the doubles semis in (1) Raymond/Stosur vs. (5) Groenefeld/Shaughnessy, and (12) Yan/Zheng vs. (9) Asagoe/Srebotnik.