Clijsters embarrassed by Petrova; Henin survives three-setter on Day 5 at Australian Open

Three Belgians took the courts at Melbourne Park for third round matches on Friday, in the hopes of putting three Belgians in the second week of a Grand Slam for the very first time. But the last woman up wasn't able to make it through, as Kim Clijsters suffered the worst loss of her career - both careers - at the hands of an inspired Nadia Petrova.

From the moment the match began, there was something missing from one of the brightest stars of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Her timing off in just about every area of her game, Clijsters - the No.15 seed - was under the control of Petrova, who, despite having ranked Top 3 at one time in her career, is the No.19 seed here, after some recent up and down results on the Tour.

Petrova played a perfectly aggressive match - 15 winners to 10 errors, perfect on net approaches, winning 92% of points on first serve - while Clijsters was clearly off, a -21 winners-to-errors differential (5-26) contributing to a 60 61 loss.

"I was preparing myself for a long day and a long match. I just wanted to give everything I could today, and I'm very happy," Petrova said. "I tried to focus on winning every single point. When I broke her in the second set I realized it was a two set match for me. I just started to cruise through it from there."

Clijsters' previous worst loss came at the hands of Serena Williams nine years ago in Miami, succumbing in that one, 60 62.

"The way I played today, I was completely off and I didn't feel the ball at all," Clijsters said. "She was good, but she really didn't have to do much. She served really well and was aggressive, but that's because I let her play into the court.

"It sucks... It's something you don't want to happen too often."

Justine Henin also faced some adversity in the form of a powerful Russian but she was able to make it through to Week 2, edging Alisa Kleybanova, the No.27 seed, 36 64 62. Kleybanova was up 63 31 with point for 63 41.

"I kind of survived a little bit today," Henin said. "It's always good to win this kind of match because I came back from nowhere. It was so tough for me to recover after my match with Elena. I suffered a little bit in the last two days. I wasn't feeling enough energy to be able to compete at my best. But I was patient."

Henin improved to 25-0 lifetime in Grand Slam third round matches.


Friday, January 22, 2010

Singles - Third Round
(2) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Elena Baltacha (GBR) 61 62
(3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. (Q) Angelique Kerber (GER) 36 75 64
(31) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. (8) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 62 63
Zheng Jie (CHN) d. (11) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 57 63 60
(19) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (15) Kim Clijsters (BEL) 60 61
(WC) Justine Henin (BEL) d. (27) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) 36 64 62
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Roberta Vinci (ITA) 75 76(4)
(Q) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 61 67(4) 63