Henin advances, Date Krumm stuns Safina in round one

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Wilson Blade 9

Four-time French Open champion Justine Henin was making her first appearance at the tournament since winning it in 2007 and defeated Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4 6-3 to reach the second round. The Belgian world No.23 now has 22 straight wins at the French Open, and 21 of those came between 2005 and 2007, in the period Henin won three straight titles in Paris. In addition, the 27-year-old Henin has won 37 straight sets at the tournament, which is the longest streak in the Open Era.

Ninth seed Dinara Safina, finalist here in Paris last year and the year before, was stunned by world No.72 Kimiko Date Krumm in the first round already. The 39-year-old Date Krumm, who made her French Open debut when her today’s opponent was only three-years-old, scored a 3-6 6-4 7-5 victory. The former world No.1 Safina made 17 double faults.

The 1995 French Open semifinalist Date Krumm, who returned to tennis in 2008 after a 12-year retirement, became the second oldest player to win a main draw women’s singles match at the tournament since the game turned professional.

Seed No.22 Henin will play Klara Zakopalova in the second round, while Date Krumm will face Jarmila Groth.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Wow…shocker! I never thought Safina would fall out that soon! Henin on the other hand will go far, if not win RG!

    Marija, what do you think about Safina’s situation? Do you think she will end up like Ana?

    As for Ana, I wish she beats the Russian! Tough opponent, kind of skeptical! I hope she will go far with JJ!

  2. OMG! she was leading 5:0 in the 1st set and she ended like this?! but I think she hasn´t healed her back completely. she didn´t run for many balls in the 3rd set.

    bb, I think she will end even worse than Ana. she is mentally weak, Ana has desire.

    I want to see Ana winning again 🙂

  3. Go Justine! Even if Tsvetana isn’t that highly ranked, she hits the ball really hard and has caused problems for the top top players, so I think this was a good match to get under Justine’s belt. Here’s to hoping she goes all the way and keeps her record alive.

    It sucks that Dinara went out so early (hoping she’d get some good news after firing her coach and being up-and-down this year), but all the credit goes to Kimiko since she was also injured during the match.

  4. I think Justine needed this kind of a match to shake off the nerves and the rust. I guess it may help her to analyse the mistakes and improve things which did not work out for her. I am pretty sure she will win this.

    Hats off to Date-Krum, I think she can serve as a role model to a lot of her younger colleagues. She really does have what you call a fighting spirit and she is there for the sport, which I really like. To beat a runner-up even with an injury it’s amazing, many young guns would not be able to pull off such a victory, I wish she has a good run at FO.

  5. Bb, just like Ana, Safina has that ability to step up and win the match even when she’s losing, but she also had huge meltdown moments, think of her Grand Slam finals, so it depends which of these two sides will take the lead.

    Kimiko is the proof that Ana and Dinara have enough time on their hands to solve their issues, and why not even retire for a couple of years. 😛

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