http://www.fedcup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=10844 Henin-Hardenne finds form just in time to keep Belgium alive No-one will be too surprised that the first day score in Liege is 1-1. This eagerly awaited tie featuring four of the world’s top 10 players was always expected to be close, but the route by which it arrived at one rubber apiece was hardly what most people had expected. If the Belgians were favourites at the start of the day, they ended it delighted to be level after so nearly going 0-2 down. After Elena Dementieva had played one of her best clay court matches to beat Kim Clijsters 64 63, Justine Henin-Hardenne had to come back from the brink of defeat to salvage something from a day that looked to be heading for calamity for the best team Belgian tennis has ever paraded. Needing to impose herself after Clijsters’ defeat, Henin-Hardenne slipped to a 1-4 lead early in the first set, and while she got back on level terms, her errors contrasted with the solidity and accuracy of Nadia Petrova’s shots in the first set tiebreak, which the Russian took 7-2. With the home player – she’s at home not only in Belgium but here in the French-speaking region of Wallonia – struggling to stay on level terms in the second, the crowd feared the worst, and Petrova was looking mighty impressive. Petrova finally fulfilling her promise History may show this period to be the point at which the 23-year-old Muscovite really came into her own. Long before Anastasia Myskina became the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam title and Maria Sharapova the first Russian woman to be ranked No 1, Petrova was tipped by many to be the first to both honours. She has all the shots, a powerful and tall body, and the genetic heritage of parents who were both Olympic athletes. But she has had a longer maturing process on the mental side, and only now, with back-to-back titles in Amelia Island and Charleston, which have taken her to a career-high ranking of fifth, has she begun to do justice to her promise. But those ten consecutive victories on the North American clay took their toll on Petrova as she closed in on victory. Henin-Hardenne played her first really impressive game to break for 4-2, connecting with five superb returns, all off first serves, to signal her intent. But she was broken back in the next game, and when Petrova led 30-15 on the Belgian’s serve at 4-4, Belgium ’s chances looked to be hanging by a thread. Henin turns it around That’s when Henin-Hardenne got a little lucky. She profited from a bad bounce to get back to 30-30, challenged her opponent to pass her on the next two points, and then broke the Petrova serve to seal the set. That was the first time Petrova had looked a bit lame, and her tiredness continued into the final set. Henin-Hardenne squandered a 3-0 lead, but the consistency of Petrova’s strokes was starting to tail off, and the Belgian took the match by holding her serve to love for a 67(2) 64 63 scoreline. Earlier, Dementieva had outplayed Clijsters in a 98-minute match, which really made the Belgian pay for leaving her 2006 clay court debut until this match. Dementieva, who had won just two of their previous 11 matches, was clearly targeting the Clijsters backhand with a variety of slice, flat and topspin hitting. But what really unnerved Clijsters was Dementieva’s retrieving – she got so many seemingly hopeless balls back, and on one point a rasping Clijsters forehand elicited a premature scream of “magnifique” from the crowd, only for Dementieva to get the ball back and go on to win the point. Clijsters is first up on the second day against Petrova, and is likely to play two matches if the score is 2-2 after the final singles. She and Henin-Hardenne are expected to come in for Kirsten Flipkens and Carloline Maes if the doubles is decisive. Russia have nominated Maria Kirilenko and Dinara Safina, but Dementieva looks likely to replace Kirilenko if the tie goes down to the doubles. -- 感覺很有機會要打雙打了 kim+justine vs diana+elena wow~~~what a match! --

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