At the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, top seed and defending champion Justine Henin had to work really hard to overcome Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 7-5 6-7(6) 6-3, while Ana Ivanovic confidently defeated Nicole Vaidisova 6-4 6-0.

Belgian world No.1 Justine Henin, who won the tournament in Dubai four times in five years, was pushed hard in her opening match on Wednesday. World No.28 Srebotnik lost the first set after a tough battle, and one could have easily expected that being disappointed she would lose the second set much easier. But that was not the case. Srebotnik continued to fight and took the match to the third set. The decider was also very close, and nuances decided the winner. After three hours, Henin advanced to the quarterfinals where she'll meet Francesca Schiavone. Read more »

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Top seed Justine Henin beat Italy’s Karin Knapp 6-3 6-3 to win the Proximus Diamond Games in her home Belgium. The Antwerp title is Henin’s second of the 2008 season, the first one was Sydney, and it's her 41st career title.

It was the first meeting between Henin and Knapp. World No.1 Henin continued her not-so-perfect play, but still she was more than Knapp could handle. I must point out, however, that the young Italian didn’t disappoint at all. She was a good opponent, and Henin didn't defeat her easily.

Despite the loss, the 20-year-old Knapp made a great achievement. The world No.47 hadn't won a match in three tournaments this year before her surprising run to the Antwerp final. It was her first career final and she reached it with victories over Nathalie Dechy, Yaroslava Shvedova, fourth seed Patty Schnyder, and ninth seed Na Li.

Winning the Proximus Diamond Games, Justine Henin earned $95,500. For the overly luxurious trophy she’ll have to win two more times.

Additional info: Because of the WTA’s changes to the calendar, from 2009 onwards the Proximus Diamond Games will be a tournament by invitation only. Henin opted to play in Antwerp at the farewell edition despite picking up a $10 000 fine for withdrawing from next week's event in Doha. In addition, she will forfeit $125 000 of her share in the season year-end bonus pool for missing the newly-required event. (photo via Proximus Diamond Games)

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World No.1 Justine Henin had to play three sets to beat qualifier Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and reach the Proximus Diamond Games final.

The 18-year-old Bacsinszky, ranked 94th in the world, took the first set but couldn't fight well for long enough to beat the top seed. Bacsinszky had as much as seven break points in the second set but didn't convert any of them. She wasted too many chances to produce an upset. Still, favorite Henin was made to work for more than two hours, while Bacsinszky showed she has confidence to challenge a much higher ranked player.

In Sunday's final, Henin will face China's Na Li or Karin Knapp of Italy, who play their semifinal match later Saturday. (photo via Yahoo)

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Justine Henin's clash with Maria Sharapova in this year's Australian Open quarterfinals was accompanied with something that proved to be an incident – Sharapova’s father Yuri ran a hand across his throat. Henin didn’t seem to like that and she even complained to the WTA Tour.

The world number one telephoned WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott after her quarterfinal loss to the eventual Australian Open champion. Read more »

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The world's top two players, Justine Henin of Belgium and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, will play at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin in May.

Henin has won this $1.34-million claycourt tournament three times in her career, in 2002, 2003, and 2005. Ivanovic was a champion last year, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova after being a set down.

In addition to Henin and Ivanovic, several more of the world's top 10 players are expected to participate in the Tier I event.

"The 2007 tournament was one of the best events throughout the world with
eight of the ten top ten players competing" said Sheikh Mohamed Bin Faleh Al Thani, President of the Qatar Tennis Federation on Wednesday. "I assume that such strong entries will again take part at the 2008 Qatar Telecom German Open."

The tournament runs from May 5-11. (via On the Baseline, photos Getty Images)

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