Henin Tops Clijsters; Dementieva Accuses Tourny of Cheating

"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.
-- WTA

Krajicek, Safina Reach Final at Ordina Open

'S-HERTOGENBOSCH, The Netherlands -- Dutch teen Michaella Krajicek will look to match the exploits of her older brother Richard on Saturday, as she contests the final of the $175,000 Ordina Open.

The now-retired Richard, a grass court powerhouse in the 1990s, won the 1996 Wimbledon title in addition to the 's-Hertogenbosch crown in 1994 and 1997.

On Friday, 17-year-old Michaella scored her first-ever Top 10 victory, coming from behind to oust top seed and world No.8 Elena Dementieva, 16 76(5) 64. The big-hitting teenager saved a match point on her own serve trailing 5-4, 40-30 in the second set. It is the second narrow loss Dementieva has suffered at this Tier III event, having led 3-1 in the third set against Eleni Daniilidou in the 2002 final, only to fall 36 62 63.

"In the first set, I don't think I really believed that I could play up to her level," Krajicek stated, "but in the second set, I told myself that I could do it, so I played differently. Then, I think I played my best tennis in the third set.

"This was the best match of my career."

"I played very well in the first set and even in the second set," Dementieva said after the match. "When I lost that match point and eventually the set, I still felt I could win, but it was really tough to keep my concentration and it was difficult to play."

With the earlier semifinal victory of No.2 seed Dinara Safina, Dementieva's loss prevented the third all-Russian final of 2006 and the fifth final between a tournament's Top 2 seeds. Krajicek is through to her third career final, having won titles at 2005 Tashkent and Hobart in January.

Safina, 20, also needed three sets Friday to reach her second final of 2006. Unseeded Daniilidou, who beat fellow losing semifinalist in the championship match here four years ago, was appearing in her first semifinal of 2006 and put up a brave fight against the Russian before falling 63 36 64 in one hour, 57 minutes.

"She gave me a tough match," said Safina. "In the second set, I was up a break two times but I couldn't take advantage of those chances. During the set break, I told myself that I had to make the most of those opportunities in the third set and I did that."

Safina, who recently reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in Paris, has made considerable strides in the past 12 months, but acknowledges there is still the need to keep improving.

"I think I need to get used to coming to the net; I practice it and I know I can do it, but I need to bring it into the match. I need to get more experience of coming into the net during matches because that's important on grass."

"She's very good and because it's on grass, again, I will need to dominate the court; I can't make any mistakes.

"So far, this has been a very good preparation for me. I played a lot of matches on clay, and I'm happy that I was able to switch my mind to grass and be able to make those adjustments to a very different surface."

The singles champion takes home $28,000 while the runner-up pockets $14,750.

Reigning Australian Open champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie collected their fourth doubles title of 2006 and sixth of their fledgling careers. The top-seeded Chinese duo defeated the unseeded pairing of Ana Ivanovic and Maria Kirilenko, 36 62 62.
--WTA

Gasquet Reaches First Final in 2006 v Bjorkman
 
Defending champion Richard Gasquet moved into the final of the Red Letter Days Open in Nottingham as the 20-year-old defeated Robin Soderling 7-6(7), 7-6(5) in one hour, 36 minutes.

The Frenchman, who improved to 9-0 at the grass court event, is looking to bounce back from a slow 2006 start. In September 2005 Gasquet reached his career-high ranking No.12 but an elbow injury sidelined him for the rest of the 2005 season.

Gasquet, one of only three players to defeat Federer in the past two years (Rafael Nadal and David Nalbandian are the other two), had failed to advance past the round of 16 in his first 11 tournaments this season.

En route to the final, Gasquet defeated qualifier Ivan Navarro Pastor of Spain, Italian Daniele Bracciali, countryman Gilles Simon and Sweden's Soderling..

Gasquet will next face Jonas Bjorkman, who breezed past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-1 in one hour, 11 minutes. The Swede veteran will battle Gasquet (14 year younger) for the first time in his career.

Bjorkman, who is coming off a Roland Garros doubles title with Max Mirnyi, chose to compete exclusively in the singles draw this week. The last time the 34-year-old advanced past the quarterfinals of an ATP event was in Ho Chi Minh City in September 2005, when he captured his sixth career-title.

The former World No. 4 improved to 6-10 in the season and 381-317 in his career.
-- ATP

Ancic Wins Nine Straight at Ordina Open

Third-seeded and defending champion Mario Ancic continued his solid play of late by defeating Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(4), 6-3 and booking a spot in the final of the Ordina Open on Friday.

The big-serving Croat has won 17 of his last 20 matches and is looking to capture his first title in 2006 after falling in the finals of Auckland (l. Nieminen) and Marseille (l. Clement).

The 22-year-old, who captured his career-first ATP title 's-Hertogenbosch last year, holds a lifetime 12-2 record in this tournament. He currently sits at a No. 12 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings.

Ancic will battle Jan Hernych, who posted a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over Florent Serra to move into his career-first ATP final. The Czech, now 11-13 in the season, had not won back-to-back matches prior to 's-Hertogenbosch.

Ancic will take a perfect 3-0 record against Hernych into tomorrow's final. The Croat, who did not drop a set in their three career mettings, defeated the Hernych twice on grass last season, in the 's-Hertogenbosch semifinals and Queen's first round.
-- ATP

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARB
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