Henin-Hardenne marches on
Former champion Justine Henin-Hardenne cruised into the third round of the French Open today with a straightforward victory over Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual.
The Belgian, who is seeded 10 here, had few problems seeing off the challenge of Ruano Pascual, recording a 6-1 6-4 triumph to set up a third round meeting with another Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.
Medina Garrigues advanced with a 6-3 6-4 triumph over 24th seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria.
Henin-Hardenne’s victory continues her impressive recent run of success on clay.
The 22-year-old, who won the French Open title in 2003 but had her 2004 season wrecked by injury and illness, was victorious in three successive clay court tournaments running up to Roland Garros and she will fancy her chances of lasting well into the second week in Paris – although that could depend on how well her fitness holds up.
Irrespective of how far she progresses here though, the former world number one admits she is happy just to be back playing.
“I did miss tennis a lot,” she said. “When you love to play and you can’t, it’s very frustrating. So I feel very lucky to be back on the court, and I try to enjoy my game probably more than in the past.
“But I don’t know if I’m playing better,” she added.
“I hope one day I can play better than before my illness. But here at the French Open, it’s a different kind of pressure, and a lot of attention on myself. And I’m not used to it any more.”
Also going through to the third round on Thursday were Russian duo Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze, plus Shahar Peer of Israel.
Petrova, the seventh seed, comfortably negotiated her clash with Frenchwomen Severine Beltrame, winning 6-1 6-3, Chakvetadze defeated Czech Klara Koukalova 6-4 6-3 while Peer eased her way past another Czech, Kveta Peschke, with a 6-1 1-6 6-4 win.
