Henin Wears Down Sharapova for Third Dubai Title

After her controversial retirement in the Australian Open final, Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne on Saturday again established herself as the biggest threat to the No. 1 spot in 2006 if she can stay healthy, wearing down the confidence of Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-2 for her second title of the year at the WTA stop in Dubai.

While entering the Dubai final ranked fifth behind Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Lindsay Davenport and Sharapova, the oft-injured Henin-Hardenne nonetheless has the best title-winning percentage of any player during the 2004-present span: winning 5 of nine events she contested in 2004, four of nine events contested in 2005, and now winning two her three played thus far in 2006.

That's only nine events in 2004, and nine events in 2005 for the Belgain, compared to the 19 alone played last year by Mauresmo who is set to re-take the No. 1 ranking from Clijsters next week in Doha.

Henin-Hardenne has now reached the final in all three of her events contested in 2006. In Dubai she navigated a field that in the quarterfinals featured five former No. 1-ranked players.

"It's an amazing feeling," Henin-Hardenne said of her third Dubai title. "It's great, because I didn't know really what to expect before coming here after my health problems in Australia. It's been a tough week even though I won all my matches in two sets. It's been pretty hard with the rain and the waiting, and it's a great feeling to have two victories already this year, and that gives a lot of confidence."

Sharapova's title drought now stretches to June of 2005 at Birmingham where she won on grass.

Sharapova was broken at 5-5 in the first set, and at 2-2 in the second, dropping the last four games of the match.

"I played great tennis this week," said Sharapova who beat the former No. 1s Martina Hingis and Davenport. "It was a tremendous effort for me to be able to play two really tough matches yesterday and still play a high level of tennis today. In the first set it was just one or two balls didn't go my way I guess, and then after that I was physically tired from yesterday."

In the doubles final the unseeded Czech/Italian team of Kveta Peschke and Francesca Schiavone came from a set down to beat Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 for their first title of the year as a team.