Justine Henin edges Maria Sharapova to reach Roland Garros fourth round

9
Wilson Blade 9

Justine HeninThe third round match between Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova was suspended due to darkness on Saturday, with each player having won one set, and when the play resumed today Henin had the edge and defeated Sharapova 6-2 3-6 6-3. If the third set had been played on Saturday, Sharapova could have gone all the way to victory, but as her momentum was stopped, pretty unsurprisingly the four-time French Open champion Henin won. However, Sharapova can be proud of the fact that she became the first player to take a set from Henin at Roland Garros in five years.

The 22nd-seeded Henin, who extended her winning run at Roland Garros to 24 matches, will play seventh seed Samantha Stosur in the fourth round.

Fifth seed Elena Dementieva became the first player to enter the quarterfinals of the 2010 French Open, with a 6-1 6-2 victory over South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers, ranked 131st, who had upset Gisela Dulko earlier in the tournament. Dementieva’s opponent in the quarters will be either Venus Williams or Nadia Petrova.

Maria Kirilenko, the winner over defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round, was beaten by Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-4. Schiavone’s next opponent will be the winner of the match between Caroline Wozniacki and Flavia Pennetta. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

9 COMMENTS

  1. i got really involved in the match, i was really hoping Maria would win. I think Nadia will beat Venus, and i also think that Flavia might just beat Caroline.. Either way, it will be very very very tight 🙂

  2. I was so sad with Maria’s defeat to Henin… 🙁

    She had so many oportunities to win that match! She had 3 break points to serve at 4-0… She was playing a really good match,dominating the points (specially with her backhand).

    But i was happy to see her serving a lot better. And, most of all, i was happy to see that she is getting back that “killer instinct” that made her the great champion she is!

  3. Awww… Too bad, i was really cheering up for Maria, i think she was close to victory. At least she fought till the end.

  4. Sorry to see Maria lose this one. I think results would have been a little tighter if play had not been suspended.

    Petrova is playing very strong. She beat Rezai right before Venus – so not too surprised she prevailed over Venus.

    Still I have no prediction for the women or the men. The best contenders are rising to the top. There could be your usual suspects or a breakthrough player on both sides!

  5. Sucks that Maria lost. I was hoping she would win, but then again she is not the best on clay.

    I was not surprised at all when Petrova beat Venus as Petrova is a tough opponent and Venus is not that good on clay. I was hoping Flavia would win, but Wozniak pulled through which is not a surprise either. I would give the upper hand to Petrova in her match up against Dementieva. I could also bet that Petrova can make it to the finals this year as the bottom half of the draw is not even close to as tough as the upper draw

    What is interesting is that so little Russians made it that far at RG this year…there will only be one left after the quarters 🙂

    A very important match tomorrow will be JJ vs. Hantuchova. The Slovakian beat JJ quite a few times recently due to JJ’s injury. I give the upper hand to JJ because of the surface and because of the occasion (Grand Slam). I am anticipating a potential match up between JJ and Henin. That will be a thriller to watch don’t you think so guys?

    The Finals however are pretty unpredictable

    Hope everything is well Ms. Marija!

  6. Too bad that Maria lost, she played well and she would completly deserve it. She showed some great game, good serving and attacks, but, I think that Maria should be working a lot on her volley. Many times we saw her attacking and attacking, great, powerful shots, Justine returning it all and at the end Maria losing the point. If she were confident in her volley, she could finish that point easily: instead of that, she continues hitting from the serve line risking to lose a point by error or having to go back on the base line and continue the rally. In many points she was confused because of that: had to continue attack, but too scared to get to the net. I know she is very tall and doesn’t have so good reflexes and speed, but, still, she should work on it. It would win her points for sure. Especially at Wimbledon; hope she’ll do good. Loved when she played two-three points with her left hand! So, I think she shoul be very proud in herself. Justine…aghhhh…I was so sure she is going to win the tournament, but, now…I don’t know. Even if she does, it just isn’t that. She just isn’t so good. It’ll get better in time, I suppose, but…Don’t think she has chances to win Wimbledon and achieve her goal, at least this year.

  7. Go Justine! So excited when she won because her serve wasn’t working but in the last game she served two amazing first serves. She just needs to work on her serve, it’s the one thing in her game that needs improvement (though even before she retired it also had problems lol). It should be a good match between Justine and Sam, but I think Maria’s a tougher opponent than Sam so I’m pretty sure she’ll make it to the next round and play Serena.

    I was so hoping Maria Kirilenko would win, but Francesca was too good today.

  8. Allez, Justine!!! I’m glad she got through this match, it was a test for her confidence. Shame that they had to meet so early though. The organisers could save another promising thriller for at least quaters of the final. Nevermind, now Serena is next…!

  9. So close but yet so far. As much as I dislike the fact that Sharapova lost, this tournament has been a success for her and the signs for the upcoming tournaments are really good. It would be so good to see her get back to the top and I really hope she gets there. Well done to Sam for beating Justine! Its a great achievement.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here