Clijsters win sets up revenge match with Myskina
Clijsters win sets up revenge match with Myskina
Fri Sep 26, 2:48 PM ET
By Richard Eaton
LEIPZIG, Sept 26 (Reuters) - World number one Kim Clijsters romped into
the semi-finals of the Leipzig Grand Prix with a 6-1 6-3 victory over
Switzerland's Patty Schnyder on Friday.
Clijsters will now get a chance to avenge her loss to Anastasia Myskina
at the tournament last year when the pair meet in Saturday's semi-finals.
Third seed Myskina came back from a set and a break down to oust Russian
compatriot Nadia Petrova 6-7 6-1 6-1.
Attempting to hold on to her top ranking for the remaining seven weeks
of the 2003 season, Clijsters was in ruthless form in the opening set
and clinched it with the minimum of fuss.
The Belgian briefly ran into trouble at 3-3 in the second set when she
faced a break point after hitting the ball long.
However, the favourite, who was still suffering from jetlag after flying
in from Melbourne earlier in the week, recovered to stave off the break
with a deep first serve.
Having failed to break Clijsters, a frustrated Schnyder dropped her own
serve in the eighth game after being pinned back at the baseline by the
Belgian.
That was enough to give Clijsters the edge and she duly served out to
secure a place in the last four.
"It is always motivating to break serve in the opening game as I did,"
said Clijsters, who was suffering from a sore throat.
"And, yes, it was a bonus to get through this quite quickly.
"At least I slept till 6am last night and got six hours sleep and my
cold feels better, so now I am coping by just resting as much as possible."
BATTLING INSTINCTS
Myskina led her match 5-3 in the first set but Petrova, a semi-finalist
at the French Open in June, displayed her battling instincts to take it
to a tiebreak.
Although Petrova sealed the set 7-5 in the tiebreak, she soon ran out of
steam and barely posed a threat once Myskina had recovered from the early
break in the second set.
Justine Henin-Hardenne, who beat compatriot Clijsters in the U.S. Open
final three weeks ago, moved to within one win of a possible rematch.
She won 6-2 6-4 against another Belgian, Els Callens, and once again
looked the most in-form player of the tournament.
Her dashing performance, full of colourful ground strokes and enterprising
advances to the net, was only marred by the discomfort in her shoulder that
required ice treatment.
Henin will see the WTA trainer to check out the injury before her semi
-final on Saturday.
"I feel really motivated after winning two Grand Slams," said Henin.
"I think I played very well. But I need to play well again tomorrow."
Henin next faces Maria Vento-Kabchi, who reached her second semi-final
in three weeks after Czech Sandra Kleinova retired with a thigh injury.
The Venezuelan qualifier was leading 6-0 3-1 when her opponent quit.
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