Justine downs Dinara to advance into the semis at Charleston
28th April 2006
Justine Henin-Hardenne advanced to the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup by downing seventh-seeded Dinara Safina 6-4,6-1. With the win, Justine is now 3-0 versus Dinara in career head-to-heads.
Having a low first serve percentage of only 59 % compared to that of Dinara Safina’s 81% did not stop Justine from advancing into the semi finals where will be facing Swiss Patty Schnyder who in the other quarterfinal match dispatched of French Natalie Dechy. 6-0,6-3
The first set was some sort of a warm up for Justine, as her tall opponent hit the ball pretty hard and long. Justine has to find some answers to Dinara’s blistering shots. True enough, as the games went on, Justine’s game got better and better, finishing the first set in 41 minutes at 6-4
Justine’s newly found rhythm in the later part of the first set carried her into a lop-sided victory in the second set at 6-1, in just 30 minutes.
Asked of what she thinks of her next opponent whom she did not know yet she said : “They still have to play tonight, so it’s going to be anyway a tough match. Semi is always tough. It means that all the players are playing very good tennis, and I’ve played both of them(Patty and Natalie) pretty often. So we’ll see. I think it’s going to be interesting and a tough
match for sure”.