Henin a Winner in Return

PARIS, France - It may not have come easily, but Justine Henin made a victorious return to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour at the Open Gaz de France Wednesday, moving past Emilie Loit, 36 62 62, to reach the quarterfinals of the $600,000 event.

What began as something of a surprise turned on a dime from the beginning of the second set, as Henin began hitting the mark with her aggressive strokes and firm net play. She broke in the sixth game of the third set to go up 4-2 and ran away with it from there, ending her first meeting with Loit in one hour, 22 minutes.

"It was hard to find my rhythm in the first set, but it's normal after not having played for a while," Henin said on her early match form. "My serve wasn't of high quality and I was quite defensive."

Perhaps Henin's most impressive stat during second and third sets was her serve; she dropped only eight points in her eight service games, and blasted 11 aces to zero double faults (she was 14-1 in aces and double faults in the entire match).

"As the match progressed, I started to play better, finding my rhythm and getting my confidence," she added. "It's always a great feeling to win a match; I'm happy that I'll have another opportunity on Friday."

Henin had a fantastic 2006, finishing No.1 on the strength of reaching finals at all four majors (winning Roland Garros) and also claiming the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships. But she has since dropped to No.2 due to inactivity (she pulled out of the Australian swing due to personal reasons). She'll next take on the winner of Thursday's match between Tatiana Golovin and Ekaterina Bychkova.

Two more second round matches took the court Wednesday. The first was a marathon between No.7 seed Dinara Safina and French wild card Camille Pin, won by Safina, 26 62 76(5); Pin recently tested another top Russian, namely Maria Sharapova, in the opening round of the Australian Open, falling 9-7 in the third. In the final match of the day, No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova survived a nail-biter against an inspired Katarina Srebotnik, fighting two-and-a-half hours for a 67(4) 64 76(4) win.

Chakvetadze among first round winners

The last three first round encounters were also played Wednesday, with No.8 seed Anna Chakvetadze, Tatiana Golovin and Anabel Medina Garrigues all advancing with relative ease into the second round.

Chakvetadze blew past fellow 19-year-old Russian Olga Poutchkova, 62 60, in just 52 minutes. She held her serve with ease and broke her compatriot in five of her seven service games, eventually clinching her 20th win in her last 22 matches.

Golovin, also 19, notched a 62 62 victory over French phenom Alize Cornet, while Medina Garrigues held off a late charge to move past Severine Brémond, 62 75.

All three will contest their second round matches on Thursday. Chakvateadze will face Medina Garrigues, while Golovin battles qualifier Ekaterina Bychkova. Three more second rounds are also up: No.2 seed Amélie Mauresmo against Nathalie Dechy, No.4 seed Nadia Petrova battling Martina Müller and No.5-seeded Nicole Vaidisova against Lucie Safarova (in a rematch of their Australian Open quarterfinal).