The procession of successful comebacks at the Brisbane International has continued on Pat Rafter Arena with former world number one Justine Henin ousting second seed Nadia Petrova in straight sets this afternoon.
In her first professional outing since her shock retirement in May 2008 the seven-times grand slam champion – a wildcard in the field at the Queensland Tennis Centre – defeated the 20th-ranked Russian 7-5 7-5.
The entire women’s field had waited with a mixture of nervous anticipation and dread as the singles draw was made on Saturday with no one safe as Henin lurked as a floater in the 32-strong main draw.
The unlucky was ultimately the tournament’s second-highest ranked entrant, Petrova, and any fear she may have felt at the prospect of facing the rejuvenated Belgian was well justified.
In a close-fought encounter with the strongly-built Russian, Henin broke her opponent at 5-5 in the first and second sets and refused to surrender those advantages in clinically converting on both occasions.
She now faces Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan in the second round after her three-set defeat of Australia’s Casey Dellacqua earlier today.
Source: brisbanetimes.com.au
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